


Give Us A Kiss

by Arkada



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Anal Sex, Angst, Imprisonment, Incest taboo, Lip sewing, M/M, Romance, Thunderfrost - Freeform, forbidden relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-18
Updated: 2013-02-25
Packaged: 2017-11-29 17:43:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/689687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arkada/pseuds/Arkada
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thor and Loki have always known that should their relationship be discovered, they would be disowned, imprisoned, banished - maybe even executed. But knowing it is different to living through it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Thor or The Avengers. Still. 
> 
> But I do own Thor and Loki bobbleheads. Much excited.

“ _Loki…_ please!” 

Loki’s grin was sharp. His teeth were bright against his kissed-red lips. His face almost glowed, set against the dark of his hair. 

He tossed his head back. His hair flew with the motion. Then he rolled his hips downward, and his stretched hole swallowed Thor to the hilt. 

Thor groaned. His cock was buried completely in his brother-lover’s tight wet heat. Loki’s simple movements back and forth felt like the surging of a whole ocean as Thor lay drowning on the seabed.

Loki laughed with soft triumph. For all his cock was as hard as Thor’s, and dripping onto Thor’s stomach, he looked composed. It was Thor who had broken first, and demanded more. Loki had won whatever strange prize he had decided upon this time. 

“Well?” Thor gasped. He barely heard the word through the rushing of blood in his ears. “What will you have of me?” 

Loki smirked. “I’ll think of something.” 

Loki’s voice carried none of the tell-tale signs that Thor’s did. Hearing him, nobody could have guessed they had been at this for hours already. Thor leaked Loki’s seed from his own thoroughly-used hole, and still tasted it in the back of his throat. Loki himself was already wet and loose from Thor’s previous efforts. But Loki looked as regal as the prince he was, showing none of Thor’s panting disarray. 

Hah. Thor would strip that untouched facade from him and leave it in tatters like their garments, strewn across the floor. 

Thor seized Loki’s shoulders and jerked him against his chest. He rolled, pinned Loki on his back, and leant over him. His cock had half slipped out with the motion. He slammed back inside his brother-lover before Loki could say a word. 

“If you won’t tell me, then you’ll take what I give you,” Thor growled. He shifted his legs for better leverage and thrust hard into Loki, then again, and again. 

Loki laughed, but his hands were fisted in the furs of Thor’s bed. His legs wrapped firmly around Thor’s waist. “Will I? Then get giving.” 

Thor answered with a thrust that jarred Loki’s whole body. Thor’s cock was burning, and swelling even further. Or perhaps the gripping tightness he felt was Loki clenching down around him. Stormy need built behind his eyes once more. Loki’s hands were clutching at Thor’s arms and would leave yet more delicious marks on his skin. 

“ _More._ ” 

Thor bent to Loki’s chest and took toned muscle between his teeth. He bit down hard, and Loki shouted and arched into Thor’s mouth. The hot splash of his release coated Thor’s stomach. 

Thor fucked him through it, shoving breathless gasps from Loki’s body. He straightened up and wiped one hand through Loki’s seed. He pushed his dripping fingers into Loki’s mouth. Loki moaned, and sucked them clean. His tongue swirled around them, sweet and quick and eager. His cock was still half-hard between their bodies. Thor reached down and took Loki in hand. 

Loki spasmed beneath him, and his hole squeezed Thor’s cock. The tight swirl behind Thor’s eyes burst and flew through him, hard and sudden. He pumped his seed into Loki’s body. Loki’s hole pulled it from him. Loki’s hands were on Thor’s buttocks, holding him close, keeping him locked inside. Thor thrust shallowly, hips twisting, to work his seed deeper into Loki. 

Loki grinned, and ran one hand through Thor’s hanging, sweaty hair. “Finished yet?” 

Thor took several breaths before he could speak. Loki purred satisfaction. 

“I will never be finished with you.” 

“Good enough,” Loki said, as if indulging Thor’s strange whims. He lifted a leg, bent sharply, and pushed at Thor’s hip with his toes. Thor slid from Loki’s body. Loki’s flesh dragged at his cock as though it longed to keep him inside. 

Thor flopped to the bed, chest down, beside Loki. He stretched a hand between his brother-lover’s legs, and ran two fingers over his hole. He could feel the dripping trace of his seed, from this release and others, brought out with his cock. “Yes?” 

“Mmm.” 

Thor pushed his fingers back inside easily, and met no resistance. Loki had taken Thor’s cock for a whole hour before this round. He flexed his fingers, and they squished through the wet warmth. Loki tightened around him, using Thor’s fingers to keep his seed inside himself. They would be dripping white when Thor removed them, and flushed red from the heat of Loki’s body. 

Loki wiggled his hips a little, and laughed softly. “You do know they’ll kill us both for this?” 

Thor closed his eyes. Some of the sparks under his skin faded. Not again. 

Thor pulled his fingers from Loki’s body, and wiped them clean on his own hip. He wrapped his arms around Loki, as if Thor could protect him from the truth and what came with it. Loki had spoken of this before. Thor always tried to stop it going further, to stop Loki falling into a strange mood that only pained him. But he never succeeded. Thor _did_ know they would both be killed. Still, _they can try_ stood on the tip of his tongue, side-by-side with _they wouldn’t dare_ , and _I won’t let them;_ you _won’t let them._ But Thor was not the optimistic child he had once been, and of the two of them Loki was the only liar with any skill. “I know.” 

“Or,” Loki went on, tone far too light for his words, “perhaps they won’t. They’ll kill _me_ , we both know that, but you? Ah, I think the golden heir to Asgard cannot be so easily spared as the vile mad traitor.” His voice turned black towards the end, spitting the words like the curses they were meant to be. 

Thor held Loki closer, and tugged them both into a better arrangement. They lay now on their sides, their naked, well-fucked bodies pressed together. Their lips and eyes were mere inches apart; they breathed the other’s air. Loki’s skin against his was softer than silk and richer than the furs they lay on. “Do not say such things.” 

“We both know them to be true.” 

Loki’s eyes were dark, but there was just enough of a spark buried somewhere in the green that Thor did not lose hope. “About yourself. Do not call yourself those names.” 

Loki shrugged, flesh whispering where it moved against Thor’s. “All Asgard does.” 

Oh, his poor brother-lover, to be so touched by what they thought. Thor bent his head to hide the look of pity that would be little welcome. Never before his fall had Loki cared about public opinion. Only now did their vitriol burn him, when it truly was _all_ Asgard whispering slanders and curses behind his back. Or, often as not, within his hearing. Thor tried a light jest instead. “And as you have said so many times, my love, you are not of Asgard.” 

“And thus will Asgard satisfy itself with my death and not yours.” The spark in Loki’s eyes flared brighter and fanned the low heat in Thor’s belly to an answering flame. “’Tis I who will die for touching you…” Loki ran a single fingertip down Thor’s chest, sliding between his abdominals and through his own seed. “For holding you…” The fingertip turned to five, moving lower still. Loki took Thor’s cock in hand. His grip was light and feathery, and Thor arched back into the pillows. “Tasting you.” Loki writhed sinuously down the bed, shoulders twisting, until his lips were level with Thor’s cock. Thor shuddered in his grasp. Loki’s black hair looked magnificent where it was spilling over the tanned skin of Thor’s hips. Loki’s tongue flicked from between his lips and curled around Thor’s tip. The slight roughness of his tongue felt like a hot, wet rasp. Thor struggled to keep his hips motionless on the bed to let Loki play out his game. 

“Or my worst crime yet, making you taste me in turn.” 

Thor flung himself upright and shoved Loki further up the bed. Thor bent and wrapped his own lips around Loki’s cock. Thor slid down the length of him until the soft head was bumping the back of his throat. Thor’s mouth was filled and his lips were stretched wide. From the corner of his eye, his yellow hair over Loki’s pale skin looked almost as lovely as Loki’s hair on Thor. 

Loki chuckled, and a slim-fingered hand laced through Thor’s hair. “See- _ah_ … what I have reduced you to? Thor the Thunderer greedy for the chance to suck treacherous Loki’s cock. How many times have I done this to you? A hundred? A _thousand?_ They will slaughter me a thousand times for this.” 

Thor sucked harder and won a gasp from Loki, the flesh in his mouth quivering. He pulled up to slip his tongue between Loki’s head and foreskin. 

“Look at the heir to Asgard, pleasuring his traitor br-” Thor scraped him gently with his teeth. “ _Agh!_ And Mother…” Loki bucked into Thor’s mouth. Thor bent to take him deeper, filling himself once more. “Mother will wash your mouth out with soap.” 

Thor bellowed laughter and choked as it drove Loki down his throat. He drew away and laughed again. The idea! All Asgard screaming for blood and Mother would still treat Thor as a child. 

The laughter died. Perhaps that was not so amusing, after all. 

No, he did not savor the notion of Loki bearing this alone. Loki was right, their love was a crime, grim and terrible. But they committed it together, and Thor would stand beside Loki for whatever punishment was called down. He could neither abandon a brother nor a lover. Thor had two reasons, every reason, to not leave Loki alone. 

He had done so before. He had denied what he felt and tried to put space between them. He had seized on the news of Loki’s adoption as a reason for distance, not closeness, and had used Loki’s attack on Midgard as an excuse to stay far from him. 

But Loki had filled every thought and every dream. Every touch of his own hand he had pretended was Loki’s. He had ached with missing his brother’s silver-quick laughter and cutting truths, and he had known that Loki had been imprisoned only because Thor had wanted to keep him away. At that he had broken and begged the Allfather for Loki’s release. 

Loki had emerged from the dungeons wan and scarred and thin, but _Loki_. Thor had taken him back to his rooms, fallen to his knees, and confessed and pled mercy in the same breath. 

Loki had damned him for a sentimental fool and pulled him into bed. 

Loki’s fingers drummed on the bed now, beside Thor’s head where it lay by Loki’s hip. “You’re thinking too much. You must be in pain.” 

Thor gave a weak chuckle. “I should never have hidden my love for you.” 

Loki rolled and shifted until they were face-to-face again, long bare limbs moving slow and sweet over the furs. “No, you should have. You should have locked it away inside and never let it see the light of day.” 

Loki was right. This was a dangerous thing they did. For all Loki’s levity he would not suffer alone if they were discovered. But Thor could no more smother his heart than he could his breath, or Loki’s. He could not refuse himself Loki’s love. Calling him _brother_ was not enough. 

“Then I am glad…” He rose up over Loki. His hands bracketed Loki’s head. He held his hips teasingly just above Loki’s. “They call you the night.” 

Loki sighed, and tipped his head back in surrender and welcome. “Give us a kiss.” 

“Always.” Thor lowered himself to his brother-lover’s lips. 

~ 

But Loki was right, no matter how Thor despised admitting it. For all he was adopted, Loki was still Thor’s brother, still an Odinson, and publicly acknowledged as such. And, for all he was an Odinson, he had brought Jotuns into Asgard, made war on Midgard and fought Thor. 

He was also still blamed for the destruction of the Bifrost, and the thought turned Thor’s stomach. Asgard ever made Loki her scapegoat and blackened his name. Every time something went poorly Loki was cursed for it; every piece of ill fortune was one of Loki’s tricks. And Loki, crimes still hanging over his head, had no means of recourse. Father did not love Loki as he once had, and would not protect him from anything less than outright violence. Loki himself held no influence, even though he still bore the title of Prince. To use his magic against them would carry dire consequences. 

And for Thor to sweep through and batter the skulls of everyone who slandered Loki would be a touch unsubtle. 

He settled for pointed looks and reminders of _Loki is my brother, watch your tongue_ , but even then he had to be cautious. The combination of _Loki_ and _tongue_ ignited fire in his chest and sent blood to his cock, threatening all their efforts at discretion. Every time he spoke the word _brother_ his mind answered _brother-lover_. Though his tongue had not slipped yet it was not impossible that one day it would. 

They could have been trying harder, that was certain. _Give us a kiss_ was spoken between them in public too often to be utterly above suspicion. But they made it mocking, or brotherly, or a jest, and that was safe enough. It had been a joke between them long before they had meant the words, and had never caused comment then. Thor had not the heart to deny Loki, not again. Loki was certainly the more wary of the two of them, so if _he_ thought it well then who was Thor to fear it otherwise? 

Besides, as Loki said, Asgard believed him a sly traitorous liar. Who would think that Thor Odinson would love such a creature? 

They had not been found out yet in years of sharing a bed. It was well. 

Thor smiled into Loki’s shoulder, and closed his eyes to sleep. 

~ 

Thor glanced up from his page. 

Loki was facing away, eyes turned towards the window, but his hair was just settling into stillness. He had been almost quick enough to escape notice, but it was clear that Loki had turned away from looking at something else. He hadbeen staring at Thor. 

Thor lowered his gaze to his book once more. Staring, and ashamed to be caught; this was one of Loki’s games. Loki had no shame. 

Thor felt a shiver run up his spine. Loki’s games were ever wonderful. 

His head would have turned back to Thor, now. Those dark eyes would be watching him carefully. 

But Thor held his focus on the page, staring at the inked swirls of the words. He pretended to ignore Loki just as Loki had pretended to ignore him. 

There was a faint _squish_ as Loki crushed another grape between his teeth. Thor turned a page, and glanced up again. 

He caught the bare flicker of Loki’s eyes, this time, as he looked away. Thor smiled, and didn’t return to his book at once. It was his turn to stare. 

Loki’s hands were elegantly picking through the bunch of grapes. He plucked one free, and raised it to his lips. They parted slowly, and he set the grape between his teeth. He bit down sharply and sliced it clean in two. His finger pushed the second half back into his mouth. It left him sucking on that finger, the grape giving the impression that his mouth was oddly full. His eyes fluttered closed. Not even Loki normally ate that seductively. 

Still. Thor’s brother-lover was not the only one who could play games. 

While Loki’s eyes were still shut, Thor lifted his book and started falsely reading again. 

Nothing from Loki, and then an almost-silent hiss. Thor barely kept his smirk from his lips. 

The _plick_ of the next grape parting from its stem was somehow angry. It was definitively beheaded by Loki’s teeth. 

Thor had had years to learn to play Loki’s games. Loki would have to start trying harder in future. Thor flipped another page. _See? I’m not even listening to you._

He did, though, hear the knock at the door. 

Thor shut the book and set it on the small table beside his chair. He stood, and faced the door. “Come.” 

It opened and a guard stepped through. “My prince.” He gave a single nod to Thor. He didn’t even look at Loki. 

Thor breathed deeply, trying to calm himself. If things were not as he liked, they were still better than they had been. Even Asgard’s long-held grudges could fade. Loki being ignored was far improved over the filthy looks he would have been given a year or two ago. 

Thor spoke once he could trust himself to be civil. “Yes?” 

“Odin Allfather requests your presence.” 

What could Father want with him? And why this minute, before Loki’s game had reached its end? 

Thor waved the guard away. He bowed once, directly towards Thor, and turned and marched out. 

Thor sighed, and raised an eyebrow at Loki. “Troublesome old man.” 

Loki hid his laugh behind his hand. “I am _quite_ sure he does not summon you with the sole intention of interrupting your other business.” 

Thor walked over to where Loki sat, and bent to kiss him. His lips were warm, and underneath the grapes Thor tasted butter and honey from their breakfast. “But interrupt us he does.” 

“Liar.” Loki slapped mock-angrily at Thor’s leg. “You were engrossed in that terrible poetry and you know it,” he huffed, playing offended. 

Thor leaned in and nuzzled his neck. “Not even terrible poetry keeps away thoughts of you.” 

“Stop it.” Loki slapped him again. “Take your leave before he sends another messenger and interrupts us in truth.” 

Thor grinned and stepped back. He spread his arms wide and bowed at the waist. “My master commands.” 

He fled the room before Loki could throw a grape at him. 

~ 

“Allfather?” 

Thor’s stomach sank as Father immediately dismissed the men he was speaking with. No small matter, then, if it could not wait. 

Thor stepped forward to stand opposite Father’s chair, the wide table between them. He could have been before Loki even now, had Father not wanted him. He could have cast aside the truly awful poetry and drawn grapes from Loki’s mouth into his own… 

Father leaned back in his chair and eyed Thor gravely. Sternly. Thor felt like a boy caught transgressing, sneaking sweets from the kitchens before dinner. “One chance, Thor. One chance to confess to me.” 

“Confess what?” 

“ _Thor._ ” 

“I know not what you speak of.” His guilty heart fluttered in his chest, but it was prompted only by thinking of Loki a minute ago. They could not have been discovered, so what was Father so concerned over? 

Father rose from his seat and started pacing around the table. Stalking. Thor swallowed. “Confess what you and your _brother_ do behind closed doors.” 

 _Brother-lover._  

 _No, no, no!_ Somehow Father had spoken as if he knew Thor’s thought. That was impossible! He could not know! 

Thor drew a deep breath. That was the answer. Father _knew_ nothing, but he suspected. He tested Thor to see if he would give himself away. 

Thor almost smiled. Loki would have been proud of him. 

Father had rounded the end of the table. Thor looked him calmly in the eye as he came closer. “We talk.” _Grapes and honeyed bread._ “We eat together, often. Is it a wonder that Loki desires privacy when he is openly scorned whenever he-” 

“Enough!” Father closed the last gap between them. His voice was loud and sharp in Thor’s ears. “I’ll not have you become a liar like him. Tell me, Thor - the truth, boy, now!” 

His eye was wide, almost mad, and spittle flecked Thor’s face. He had not even been this enraged when Thor had attacked Jotunheim. 

Thor’s heart went cold. This was no suspicion. This was knowledge. Somehow they had lost their secrecy and Father knew all. 

“Father-” 

His hand flew and Thor’s head snapped back. Pain flared across his cheek. His pulse hammered in his ears, and his breaths came short and desperate. His world was crashing down around him. It was too late to stop it, too late to be more careful. They could not say less, or close the doors earlier. Everything was lost. 

He raised a hand to the throbbing flesh. It was already hot with blood rushing to the surface. He could almost feel the deeper imprint of each knuckle of the fist, and the distinct lines of single finger-bones. 

Father had struck him. 

 _Never_ had Father struck him. 

Thor glanced up. Father’s pale eye was searing. “Listen to me very carefully, Thor. The tale is already all over Asgard. They say that Loki bewitched you or threatened you into this, that he forced you to submit to him. You will do _nothing_ to dissuade them of this. Denounce Loki and all you may have been together, and you may escape unscathed.” 

 _What?_ “I will no-” 

“Foolish boy, do you know what this could cost you? You are to be _king_ after me, but do you think any will heed a man who beds his own brother? Will you bring that foul two-faced thing so close to the throne?” 

Thor’s heart thrummed with anger. Was it his own or his father’s? Perhaps both. Thor could barely see what was in front of him for the red haze. He wanted to simply make it _stop_ , to push it all away. 

Father could damn them both for incest, but he could not ask Thor to blame Loki alone. Thor could not call their love by the name of Loki’s malice. 

“Do you hear me?” 

Thor blinked, and breathed. He chased the iron bands from around his chest and forced himself to speak. “I hear you. But I will not-” 

“You _will!_ ” 

“ _I will not!_ I love Loki, Father, and that is my own affair. He is my brother _and_ my-” 

“Silence!” 

“-lover. I will not cast him aside because _you_ say I will!” 

Father’s rage hardened him and left a figure carved in stone. “This is no mere scandal. You have not been caught with some serving maid too silly to know better. You are bedding your _own brother._ I will not have incest in my house.” 

 _Incest._ Father spoke it like the filthiest curse. But Thor had felt Loki’s tender touch and held him in warm embrace. Thor had listened to the whispered secrets of a fragile mind and given it strength, day by day, for years. Loki was _his_ and he loved him. What was a simple word compared to that? “Then you should not have given me Loki for a brother.” 

His other cheek burst in pain to match the first. He gasped for air. He hadn’t even seen Father’s fist move that time. 

Thor was shaking. Father was infuriated beyond reason. He would hear no plea Thor could make. Thor gritted his teeth against the bright ache across his face and straightened up to meet Father’s eye once more. 

“Either denounce your _relationship_ as his treachery, or I cast you out.” 

Ice slipped through Thor’s veins. 

“I will strip you of your titles and your status and exile you back to Midgard, and this time Heimdall shall not bring you back. I _will not_ have this, Thor, and if you will not end this cursed thing with Loki then I will end it for you.” 

Father would throw him back into that emptiness? Would take from Thor everything he held dear? 

No. No, it would not be like that this time. There were humans who would welcome him. He had a place among the Avengers, and Jane and Erik still called him friend. 

Loki, if he were exiled elsewhere, was clever enough to find Thor. Even this could not part them. 

“Do so, if you cannot bear our love. _Loki_ is my home, and when I am with him I am content.” 

“You will abandon your throne, your realm, your _family_ for that monster?” 

Thor laughed, flying too far and too fast to stop. “As you have said, Loki is family. Take that back and we have no issue.” Oh, yes, _more_ than no issue - this could yet save them. “Make his true heritage known. Declare him an envoy of Jotunheim. Or ambassador. Forge a new peace with the Jotuns with Loki as its embodiment. What is more important than gaining the Jotuns’ alliance through something other than defeat?” 

“Do you even hear yourself? Your plan would never succeed! You cannot _marry_ Loki. Do you think he would be a loyal - _hah_ \- queen? Loved by the people? Do you think he can give you a fit heir? Assuming he could carry one, any child of his would be as mad and scheming as he! And even if it were not, I will not hand the throne of Asgard to a frost giant.” 

“Then I will leave. If you will not let me stay then I will leave. Send Loki with me and rid your house of us. You and Mother are yet young. Get yourself another heir. And if you are wise, you will not give him a brother.” 

He braced himself for another blow, but Father’s hand only clenched on air as if he longed to take Thor’s throat instead. Father’s eye flickered, and he breathed deeply. He was marshaling yet more arguments. If only Thor could end this once and for all. But he could not strike down his father like this, not yet. Not when all that was between them were words. Not when Asgard was rife with talk but nothing more. 

It risked death to raise hand against his king. But perhaps they could still go back from here. If he was cautious. Restrained. 

“ _You_ are my heir, Thor. You cannot leave Asgard. I had not wanted this, but…” 

Thor glared. Father was not truly contrite. His head was held high and unashamed. 

“Obey me and only then will I let Loki live.” 

“You will _what-_ ” 

“Do your _duty_ as a Prince of Asgard, as an Odinson, and I will not have the wretch bound and cast into the sea.” 

“ _No_ -” 

“Loki will be punished, Thor - how is up to you. Declare that he forced you. Condemn him and take back your submission, and he will not be overly harmed.” 

Thor could not see. He could not _breathe._ This was nightmare made flesh. He had known that Loki would likely be executed for this, but Thor had never felt it. Now he was wrapped in the gut-clenching certainly that Loki’s life rested in his hands and Father would not hesitate to go through with his threat. This had to stop. It had to stop. It could not go on, he would not let it. It had to stop. He had to think of something instead of churning his disbelief - but it could not be happening. There had to be something he could do if he could only _think_ of it! 

Loki would have known by now, Loki would have spun a hundred clever plots to let them escape free- “Where is Loki?” 

“I will have your answer first.” 

“Not one more word passes my lips before I see him!” 

Father’s eye burned into Thor’s, but he would not yield. Not over this. He needed Loki. He had to see him _now_. 

Father turned away, and walked back around the table. He passed the chairs slowly and came around the end, tracing the same path back to his seat in the center of the far side. He took hold of Gungnir from where it leant against the wall, raised it and drove the butt to the floor. The low note rang through Thor’s head, stern and commanding. 

Behind him, the doors opened. 

He spun. His heart all but shattered in his chest. 

 _Loki-_  

Loki struggled in the hands of four guards, naked, bruises and welts covering his body. His hands were bound tightly together in front of him. Each finger was wrapped in leather strips and tied to the others, smothering his magic. His mouth was gagged with the awful thing Thor had put on him on Midgard, lovely lips swallowed by metal - and a line of blood crept down from beneath it. 

Breakfast had been hours ago. There was nothing in his stomach to throw up. 

He caught himself on the nearest chair, fighting the awful hot clenching in his guts, swallowing back the acid in his throat. 

Loki had bitten his tongue in his struggles and that was all. They surely had not carried through with the old threat, had not stitched those lips together. They could not have, for Thor would have _known_ had Loki been in that much pain. He would have heardLoki screaming; he would have felt it himself. They could not have done this thing. 

They could not have, for nothing could keep Thor back if they had. Nothing could stop him from burning all Asgard to the ground. He would fuck Loki in the ashes, mark him as Thor’s, and bare his own neck for Loki’s marks in turn. 

It was a path he dared not take. He could not be sure that Loki would not lie among the dead. He could not promise himself that Asgard would not get her petty vengeance before Thor felled her. Thor, alone with Loki so bound, against every Asgardian… those were odds he could not risk. 

Thor swallowed again, and forced himself to straighten against the sick cramps of his belly. He looked his brother-lover in the eye and hoped he understood why Thor had not fought back already. 

He had to see Loki safe. That above all else. Whatever lies he had to speak, however callous he had to be, he would see Loki safe. 

There was a hollow empty silence in Thor’s ears, echoing and filling them. Gray swam before his eyes. His hands were too empty. He had to fight, to kill - had to wait, to be careful. 

Then there was a _crack_ against the marble. Thor blinked to see Loki sprawled before him, hands pinned under his body. There was a great ugly red whipweal crossing over half his back, standing out among the other wounds. 

This could not… No, no, no… 

Thor’s hands clenched as if gripping the air to hold himself back. He _could not_ fight them. He and Loki both would have to endure this. 

Two of the guards wrestled Loki up to his knees and held him there. A third shoved his head down in submission. Nausea surged in Thor’s gut yet again. _Never_ had Loki knelt like that, not even when dragged back from Midgard. Never had he yielded up his arrogance and confidence. It was terrible to see it done at all. But far worse than seeing it was knowing that it was Thor’s fault. 

Loki was sly and clever and careful. It had to have been Thor who had given them away. 

Loki pushed his head back up, the slightest bit, fighting against all the guard’s strength. He met Thor’s eyes. 

That perfect green… 

Loki was in his arms in the next instant. “Oh, my love,” he whispered into Loki’s neck, and tasted blood. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry…” 

Between them, Loki’s arms moved, shoving Thor back - and then they used the space to come up, loop over his head, and pull him back in. The cold metal of the gag pressed against Thor’s cheek. It was the closest Loki could come to a kiss, grotesque and sad and pathetic. Thor held Loki close again. His back ached where he had to arch forward over their legs, and his knees were sore from the drop to the floor. The leather of Loki’s bonds scratched Thor’s neck. But Loki was with him. 

“I’ve ruined everything. I’m so sorry, you were right, I’m sorry…” 

Loki shifted in his grasp. He pulled his arms back up over Thor’s head, slow and tight and difficult with his hands so bound. He pressed his smothered fingers to Thor’s lips. Thor choked, and Loki’s face blurred through his tears. _Do not forgive me. Look at what I’ve done to you._

He grabbed Loki’s hands and kissed the backs, the only exposed skin. Loki’s pulse was shaking beneath his lips, and Thor tasted Loki’s cold sweat. He was exhausted. How hard had Loki struggled against the guards as they had dragged him here? What had they done to be able to bind him like this? The answers were right in front of him. But he could not risk seeing the proof. He just stared hard at the tiny parts of Loki’s hands that looked normal, the shifting tendons and blue veins. 

No, even there he bled, a jagged scrape down in one corner. 

He felt the rage rising in his chest again, and this he would seize and ride like his storms. No lies, no obedience. Thor would not forgive this. Father and Asgard alike would fall if they stood against him. Loki was _his_ , and he had been whipped and beaten like a slave, and thrown naked at Thor’s feet. Thor would see this _end_ , right here-

“Take him away.” 

Loki’s hands were ripped from Thor’s and the pale marred flesh rushed up past his eyes. 

_No!_

_No._

Thor staggered upright and spun to face Father. “You must have me taken, too, then,” he said. Somehow the words were clear despite his weeping. “I plead _guilty_ , I confess to everything you accuse me of! I fucked my own brother. He fucked me. And you will throw me from Yggdrasil itself before I condemn him.” 

Father shook his head. “You are heir to Asgard, I will not-” 

Father meant to have Loki thrown back in a cell and keep Thor as his puppet, terrified and whimpering for Loki’s life. He glanced back over his shoulder for Loki. The guards had hesitated, staring at them both. Loki hung in their hands, eyes shining. 

Thor _would_ be with Loki. 

He turned back to face his king, and ran at the table. 

Father stood close, and it was narrow; Thor jumped forward, set his hands on the wood and swung his legs around. The world whirled. His feet caught Father full in the chest and knocked him back against the wall. The guards’ shouts rang in Thor’s ears like a war cry as he landed, and stood tall and proud. 

“Treason, my king,” Thor said, elated. His blood raced, singing. “Treason before witnesses.” 

 _Say_ now _I do not belong in Asgard’s dungeons!_

Father caught his balance. His eye was _livid_ , almost popping from his skull, and his teeth were bared in a snarl. Thor’s fists clenched. One move, and he would call Mjolnir and strike Father down as he deserved.

But Father sighed, and bowed his head. He waved a shaking hand at Thor. “Take him.” 

Still the guards paused. “My king…” 

“Take them both.” 

Thor climbed back over the table and let two guards grab his arms. They marched him forwards, following Loki. Loki stared back over his shoulder at Thor. His eyes were filled with gratitude, or grief. Perhaps both. Certainly with tears. 

But Thor was still with him, and that was all there was.


	2. Chapter 2

Loki was a wraith-like thing in the flickering torchlight of Asgard’s dungeons, a white wisp of mist between the stony cliffs of his guards on either side. In the shivering half-light, it was easier to pretend that Loki’s bruises were nothing more than shadows. The red marks were merely a snap of colored light. His unsteady movements were the work of the guards’ rough handling and not his own exhaustion. 

But nothing disguised the dripping columns of blood down his back, and worse, the dark line creeping along his neck. 

Thor shut his eyes against that. Had they… 

His guards jerked him to a stop. Loki stood to one side, still flanked by his own guards. A cell door was open before them. The cell itself was one warded against magic. The bars of the front wall, and stone of the others, were too strong for even Thor to break. They would not be leaving here by themselves. 

One of Thor’s guards rocked his weight from one foot to the other. “We’re putting them in the same cell?” 

Loki’s left shrugged. “I’m not listening to them shouting to each other.” 

“They’ll be executed either way, right? What’s it matter if they keep fucking?” 

They all nodded. Thor and Loki were pushed to the door. Loki staggered as his guards released their hold, and Thor broke free to catch him. Loki’s hands scrabbled uselessly at his chest. Thor wrapped him in a more secure grip. 

“Come on!” Hands in his back shoved him forward. They all but tumbled the last steps, off-balance. The door slammed behind them. Thor looked up through the bars. They broke up the sight of the guards as they walked back down the corridor, and threw strange shadows in the torchlight. 

Loki shuddered, and Thor clutched him tighter and lowered them both slowly to the ground. “I’m sorry. So sorry.” 

Loki rolled his eyes, and pressed his leathered fingers to Thor’s lips again. Thor laid Loki down flat, and sat down beside him. The stone floor was cold even through his trousers. How much worse was it for Loki, still bare? 

Thor’s hands reached for his cape, but he met only air. Of course he was not wearing it, when Father had called him from merely lounging about with Loki. He wore a tunic over a long undershirt and simple trousers and boots, and that was all. 

Well enough. He pulled the tunic over his head, and the shirt after it. The cold air bit his bare skin, but it had to be devouring Loki. Frost giant blood be damned, he was warm to Thor’s touch. Thor glanced down at him. Loki was shivering and trying to hide it. 

“Shh. I’ll get you warm.” Thor stood up to kick his boots off, and shove his trousers down his legs. He knelt down by Loki’s feet and worked them onto him instead, lifting his hips to pull them up fully. He grabbed the heavy tunic next, and hefted Loki’s torso up a little to slip it between his back and the floor. Then he folded the undershirt and put that under Loki’s head. “There.” 

He sat down on the stone again. He tensed at the chill, like sharp fingers digging into his exposed flesh. But it was worth it; Loki had stilled, and Thor was not so cold as to be impeded. He reached for Loki’s bound hands, and hunted for an end in the leather ties. He found a knot and picked it loose, pulled and tugged at the thin strip until it fell. He cast it aside and searched for another. The light all but swam, and what he could see changed every second. He was squinting; his eyes already hurt. 

He carried no weapons, and wore not even armor that might have had a sharp edge. All he could do was fuss with his hands until Loki was free. 

But he loosened another piece, and another. Slowly Loki’s skin came back, bloodless and crushed. Eventually he could bend his fingers again. Thor untied his wrists, and Loki pulled his hands apart and flexed them. 

Thor tried to smile. “See? Much better.” 

Loki rolled his eyes again. He laid his hands on Thor’s cheeks, and stroked gently over skin and beard as if… As if he had feared he would not touch Thor again. As if he touched him while he still could. 

It forced more tears from Thor’s eyes and a sob from his throat. He reached out for Loki, and laid his fingertips on the gag. They both flinched back. That brief touch felt as though it had left a branded imprint. “I’ll get that off.” 

Loki nodded, and rolled to his side to give Thor access to the back of it. But even the gag didn’t keep down the grunts of pain as he moved. Thor ran his hands over the unbroken skin he could see, trying to give Loki comfort and not more pain. Half his bruises were cut open and bleeding. They had beaten him with bladed weapons, or worn armor on their hands. And that one awful whip-weal… He glanced away. Now he saw the dark patches of blood on the tunic. Even looking at the gag was better than that. “I’ll fix it. It’ll be over soon.” 

He opened the catch, just as he had all those years ago after dragging Loki back from Midgard. Thor peeled the gag free from where it had sunk into Loki’s flesh. 

Loki gave a raw, half-swallowed sob. 

Thor flung the thing into a corner and pulled Loki back to face him. 

Black thread crossed his lips. 

“No…” His hands reached out before he snatched them back. _Fool!_ Did he mean to cause Loki greater agony? 

But how could he do anything without? “Loki… should I try to remove this? Or just…” Thor could take it out later, when he had scissors and warm water. 

_Look at you! Where you are! Do you think there will be a later?_  

He could leave it, then, leave Loki in pain but cause him no more… 

No. Impossible. And Loki raised a hand and made a clawing motion over his mouth. “Out?” 

A single, sharp nod. 

It was the only thing to be done, but still Thor’s heart sank. _How?_ He had nothing to work with but his own hands. The knots at the ends of the thread were tight and tiny for all they were large enough to keep it from pulling back through Loki’s lips. Thor could not undo those. He was _useless_ like this, unarmed and weak. He could not even give his brother-lover what he offered… 

But… 

_Black thread._ Was this indeed nothing but thread? He had seen women biting through the threads they sewed with, when their hands were too full to fetch scissors. Thor could do the same. 

He leaned down to examine the thread more closely. He could hear Loki’s fluttering breath, trying to calm himself. Thor laid one palm on his chest lightly. “Shh.” 

The knots were set against the lips, thread taut from end to end, but Loki had been fighting it, surely. The sewing itself would not be that tight. If Thor pulled the threads in the right way, he could work enough slack down to one end to bite it free, and then get the whole thing loose. 

He would be pulling the thread as tight as it could go. “This will hurt. I’m going to hurt you.” 

Loki nodded again. Thor bent to kiss to his forehead. His proud brave fierce brother-lover, unbroken, uncowed, _Thor’s_. “Press your lips together.” 

Loki shut his eyes, and his lips thinned just a little. It was enough to make the thread stand out from the flesh. 

Thor took Loki’s jaw in one hand, to keep him still, and pinched the first loop of thread with the other. He gave a gentle tug. Loki groaned, back arching, head pushing against the floor. It had to be terrible, worse than the sewing itself, and it was Thor’s doing. They were both shaking, but Thor could not spare a hand to give Loki one kind thing amid the pain. The quicker this was over, the better. He went to the next thread in line, and pulled it too. This one came a little more, catching up the slack gained from the first one. 

His fingers were sticky with Loki’s blood. Everything he did sewed Loki’s lips tighter. But the looseness was coming together, bunching up towards the far end, and Thor kept going. Loki writhed against the floor, breath short and harsh and desperate. His nearer hand found Thor’s ankle, and gripped it. 

His clever brother-lover, taking care of himself… 

Thor reached the final piece. He set his nails over the knot in the thread, and pulled it slowly out. Loki shuddered beneath him, a tormented groan trapped in his throat. 

Thor stopped. “No. I will not do this to you.” The amount of _pain_ in that sound was too much. They would find another way. 

Loki’s other hand wrapped around Thor’s wrist, and pulled his hand back to Loki’s lips. 

Loki’s eyes were steady on his, clear and bright and determined. Loki wanted this, and it was he who had to bear the pain. What right had Thor to refuse, if Loki was willing? 

“All right,” Thor whispered, and pulled at the knot again. It came away from Loki’s skin, taking up the slack. It stopped a full inch away. Loki’s eyes didn’t move from Thor’s. 

Thor bent down almost as if to kiss Loki, their lips a mere whisper apart. But Loki’s were torn and bleeding, and Thor’s parted only to take the thread between his teeth. Loki’s blood tasted of bitter copper. Thor bit down hard and worked his jaw to break the thread. Soon, _now-_

The end popped loose into his mouth. He turned to spit it out before leaning back down over Loki. “Half done, my love. Just a little longer.” 

The smallest whimper escaped Loki, but his hand clenched harder on Thor’s ankle for a moment before relaxing back into the mere vice-grip. Thor took the thread over Loki’s lips again. He started pulling it the other way, dragging the free end through Loki’s flesh. Too much, too long. He bent down again and bit the length off. He spat it out and pulled the next section. Yes, that was much less torment to inflict on his brother-lover. 

Pull and bite and pull and bite. Blood trickled down his throat - both their throats - but Loki’s lips parted. 

Thor pulled the last piece of thread out, and shook it from his fingers. “Are you well? Did I hurt you? I’m sorry-” 

Loki swallowed, and his lips twitched before they stilled again. If not for the dozen punctures, spilling blood, it would have been a smile. “Thor. Stop. Apolo…” 

Waves of relief swamped his body, almost a physical battering against his skin. “I apologize too much, do I?” he mocked, grinning. Loki was well if he could jest. Thor had not done anything unforgivable. “Shall I apologize for that too? Shall I beg your pardon for burying you in my contrition?” 

Loki’s hand released his ankle, and found his knee instead. “No.” 

Thor laughed. It echoed from the stone walls, the near ones of their cell and bouncing back from further down the corridor. For an instant his laughter filled the room. 

~ 

“Do you know what gave us away?” 

Loki sighed. Thor felt the tiny movement of his back as he did so, the slight swelling of the inhale and shrinking again as he breathed out. “I suspect it was everything. Once the idea came into someone’s head it fit too well to be denied. And so on to the Allfather and the whole realm. Heimdall surely confirmed it, once Odin thought to ask him.” 

Thor bent his neck to kiss Loki’s shoulder, ever so gently even with the shirt between them. Loki sat between Thor’s spread legs, back to Thor’s chest. Thor had fretted that touching his wounds would cause him more pain, but Loki had insisted. _We’ve been damned for this already, don’t you deny me now._  

And so Thor had insisted on dressing him fully, for whatever protection that could provide. He held himself rigid so that Loki could not feel him shiver. The torches in the corridor outside their cell threw poor heat as well as poor light through the bars. The stone on his naked skin was even colder than the air. But it was better to give Loki whatever comfort he could. 

“Do you remember I told you that you should have buried your love?” 

“Many times.” 

Loki shook his head, the ends of his hair whispering softly over Thor’s neck. “It should have been me. I have always been cautious for both of us, have I not? That first day you told me I should have pushed you aside and told you to forget everything.” 

Thor’s heart clenched, but Loki’s words did not suit his tone. For all he said he should never have let this happen, his voice did not long for that other past in which they were not led to this cell. But still, he was indeed the cautious one. 

“So why did you not?” 

Loki chuckled softly at himself. “Because I loved you too much not to have you. Because I couldn’t bear to have you stop looking at me the way you do.” Loki shifted, leaning forward a little to turn his head and meet Thor’s eye. A smirk crossed his lips. “Because I wanted to. I want _you_ , Thor Odinson.” 

“And I you, Loki _Odinson._ ” Thor all but growled the name, claiming it instead of shying from it. Loki’s lips twitched in a small smile. The punctures were already almost gone. Never before had Thor been so grateful that his people healed faster than others, when he had no way to ease Loki’s hurts other than leaving them to themselves. 

Loki turned away again and settled back against Thor’s chest once more. “Still. For that, I am sorry. I never meant for this to happen to you.” 

“You think I care about myself? After everything they have done to _you?_ ” 

Loki hesitated. His hands lay on Thor’s thighs, opening and closing slowly, perhaps even without his knowledge. “I cost you your family. Your throne. The respect and love of every one of your people. That…” 

“And had you done otherwise, you would have cost me _your_ love. Cost me _you_. A bitter world without that, Loki.” 

“Oh, and this one is so sweet?” 

“Perhaps not. But I am the one who is sorry for causing you pain.” 

Loki shrugged. “It was always going to be this way, you know that. I told you often enough. My blood for your freedom.” 

Thor shook his head. “Not this time. The guards said they would execute us both.” 

“And that _pleases_ you? That you’ll have your head lopped from your shoulders to land beside mine?” Loki forced a laugh. “You might fuck your traitor Jotun brother, but now I _know_ you are mad.” 

Thor smiled. Scornful he might have sounded, but ever did Loki hide truth in such. _You’d rather die yourself than live without me._ Loki knew it, and he was touched. 

“Oh, and you’re in the dungeons for treason. That, I think, is quite mad indeed. _Whatever_ possessed you to do it?” 

Thor chuckled wryly at himself. “I meant to stay free. I meant to buy your safety with any lie Father bid me tell. He wanted me to cast you off and vowed he would kill you if I did not. So I was going to forswear you, see you safe, and trust that you would know the value of telling falsehoods.” 

“Mmm. Not a bad plan. Quite good, in fact.” 

Thor grinned, and bit lightly at Loki’s neck. “Quite good! You are magnanimous today.” 

“I would have understood. Were you unsure? Was that why you stopped?” 

“No. In truth I was not thinking at all. They had hurt you and they were taking you away from me. If incest would not put me in the dungeons beside you, I needed a greater crime. Treason came readily to hand.” 

Loki laughed. “Came to hand! Oh, Thor.” 

But just as quickly he was somber again. “Still. You didn’t need to die with me.” 

Thor shook his head. “It will not come to that. Father would gain nothing with our deaths. He sought to keep scandal from my name and you from my throne. Executing us now will not help in that end.” 

“Neither will letting us live. He knows you’ll keep me by you when you become king.” 

“Ah, but I will not be king if I keep you. He told me that very clearly. He feared the people would not respect me for bedding you.” 

“And he was quite right.” 

Loki’s tone was dark, and directed inwards. It had been Thor’s choice, but still one Loki would blame himself for. 

Thor raised his arms from bracing himself against the floor and wrapped them around Loki as if he could guard him from his own sadness. “And I care not. He told me I could not have you and the throne both. It was an easy choice to make.” 

But perhaps it would be harder to live with, assuming he was allowed to live at all. Thor would not give Loki up, and so Father would never release him. His days would be spent in the dark and the cold. There were no windows here; he would never see the sky again, never hear the thunder answer his call. He would never ease the burden of rule upon his father’s shoulders, never see his mother greet her successor. 

Thor held Loki tighter. Ridiculous! All their panic over incest and they labeled every marriage with such. Thor’s wife would have been called _daughter_ by his parents, so why not _son?_ Loki was not his brother by blood; no children of theirs would suffer the illnesses common to such unions. Who did they harm? Why were they placed alongside murderers and thieves? 

He placed his lips on Loki’s shoulder again. “I do not know why they hate us so for this.” 

“Do you not?” Loki’s words quirked lightly. “It’s plain as day. They’re all jealous of me.” 

Thor barked a laugh, and some of the shadow in the cell seemed to lift. What need had he of windows when Loki’s eyes were the most beautiful things in the Nine Realms? What need had he of thunder when he could hear Loki’s voice? 

If this cell was where Loki was, Thor did not want to be anywhere else. 

~ 

Loki’s fingertips were soft against Thor’s skull, running over his skin as Loki combed his hair. Thor smiled. It was as though nothing had changed but for the setting. They had done this a thousand times in the comfort of Thor’s chambers, or Loki’s. Loki liked Thor’s hair, for all he refused to let Thor play with his own black strands. Whenever Thor was tired and Loki was not, Thor fell asleep with Loki’s hand in his hair. Often his other hand would be turning the pages of some book in his lap. 

Thor sighed. That they had lost indeed. 

Loki would miss his books terribly. There was nothing to interest him down here. Thor felt the crushing boredom himself, an ache in muscles that longed to be used. How much worse was it for Loki? He always had multiple plots to occupy him. He was never still, never inactive. Here there was nothing for him to do. 

Thor should never have done this. He should have stayed calm and carried through with his first plan, not made himself a traitor and burned any chance of saving Loki. 

“Shh,” Loki whispered, nails scratching Thor’s scalp slightly. “You’re thinking too much. Sleep.” 

“It’s still day,” Thor grumbled. 

“And you’re exhausted. Sleep.” 

He was. Who would have guessed that treason took so much energy? 

Treason. And terror, and worry. And cold. 

He nuzzled Loki’s thigh. “You’re exhausted too.” 

“Yes, but you snore. I’ll sleep when you can be silent.” 

Thor laughed softly. Loki snored louder than he did. 

Then Loki’s hand jerked in his hair and went still. “Listen.” 

Footsteps were echoing along the corridor, light and delicate, and there was a rustle of heavy fabric. 

Loki’s voice shook, his humor washed away. “I think it’s Mother.” 

“Yes.” Thor blinked and sat up, head swimming in fog. Mother… 

Loki pushed him back down to his thigh. “No. I would speak to her. Don’t show wakefulness unless I call for you.” 

Thor nodded. Loki had a plan, and ever were Loki’s plans complex but necessary. Thor did not need to understand Loki’s reasons to obey him. Thor rolled over, turning his back towards the bars. He stared hard at the light and shadow on the back wall, trying to wake himself up. 

The footsteps came nearer, and stopped. “My sons…” 

“Mother,” Loki said. His hand left Thor’s hair. “He’s asleep.” Ever so gently, he lifted Thor’s head from his thigh and laid it down against the stone. Thor shifted a little, as if disturbed deep down in his slumber, and relaxed again. 

Mother. What was she doing here? Offering her support, or sent as emissary by Father? 

Loki’s bare feet padded softly against the stone as he crossed the cell. Fabric whispered against itself; the two of them reaching for each other, perhaps? The shadows on the wall were broken and inconstant, telling him nothing. 

“How could you do this?” 

Mother’s voice was furious as even Father’s had not been. Thor’s heart sank. She had not come for support, then, nor message. She was here in her own name, and she cursed them. 

“Ah-ah! Do not blame me for this alone. You cannot believe what Asgard is saying. Do you think Thor is not strong enough to resist me if he wished? When he lies beneath me he _wants_ to be there, and he holds me tenderly and whispers love into my ears. If you will have the truth, he spoke of this first.” 

There was a sharp slap. Thor flinched. _Loki…_  

Loki laughed quietly. “I fuck your precious golden son, and that is your only vengeance?” 

A slight _clink_ of moving jewelry. It would be Mother shaking her head. “Thor would never. Not without _your_ urging. If he spoke then _you_ had made him sure of his welcome. I always knew you were - wanted things - so _perverse_ \- but your own brother, Loki!” 

“Is he?” Dangerously soft. “Is he my brother? Strange. Odin accused me of being Jotun. We share not one drop of blood. Or that that my perversion, there? Tell me, which do you hate me for more? Touching my brother or touching an Aesir? Do you fear I cannot bear children or that I _can?_ Is it worse for you if this twisted, broken thing is loyal or traitor to Asgard? What would revile you more, loathing your son or loving this monster?” 

Thor’s heart ached for Loki, but it hardened with rage at Mother. And at Father, and at everyone. All Loki’s words were in opposition and yet they were _all_ true. Thor had heard Father speak them himself. So had Loki, waiting bound outside that room, hearing how he was despised for everything he was and wasn’t. 

Oh, Thor was a fool to have acted so hastily. He could do _nothing_ down here. He should have stayed where he could make Asgard pay for this! 

“Or it is all these things entire? Is it that _Loki_ cannot have Thor?” 

“You are my _sons,_ ” she whispered, voice pained. _Good._ She deserved to feel what she had inflicted on Loki. “I did not raise you for this.” 

“Ah, ’tis your _own_ failure you seek to cleanse,” Loki said, suddenly harsh. “You are not ashamed of us, you are ashamed of yourself. You do not hide our incest down here, you hide the fact that you allowed it.” A sigh. “You curse me when I don’t call Thor my brother, and then you curse me when I _do_. Is it any wonder I please him instead of you?” 

It was meant to be sarcastic, dramatic, but under the tone of voice Loki spoke only truth. Thor longed to hold him, to ease the pain of this sudden loss. Ever had Loki called her _Mother_ , long after Father had become _Odin_. Never once had she joined in the spiked whispers behind his back. To hear this from her now must have been like a frontal attack from a trusted ally. 

“You please only _yourself_ , as you always have. Laughing at your triumph, at bringing Thor down-” 

“Am I that awful in your sight?” 

It was an overflowing of Loki’s heart that he could no longer hide, broken, sad and desperate. Thor was almost drowning. But he had to trust that there was a reason he was barred from joining them. Loki needed him to feign sleep in this corner and not to shield him from Mother’s rage. 

“I am so terrible that you cannot even be happy that he is happy. You cannot believe that _he_ chose _me._ I am unlovable without magic and threats, and unable to love even such a one as Thor. Do you truly think so little of me?” 

“I _must_. You make it so.” 

A sharp indrawn breath. It might have been Loki’s; it might have been Thor’s. Never had he suspected that Mother felt this way towards Loki. Never had he thought her love might have had limits. Small wonder that Loki lied so much, when truth felt like this. 

Loki spoke, voice hard. “Do not come again.” 

“You dare-” 

“You have said more than enough. You have broken my heart; I would have his stay whole, if you have not broken it already.” 

_Oh, Loki…_

“Break his heart?” Mother hissed. “I curse _you_ , you viper, how will that break his heart?” 

Loki called, “Thor?” 

Mother’s gasp was full of shame. It was a clever plan of Loki’s, to claim that Thor was absent. Never would she have spoken such had she known he could hear. Never would she have slapped Loki in Thor’s sight. 

They had to know that Mother stood against them, that they could not turn to her for support. But for Loki’s heart to be broken by it… 

And his own. Loki was right. 

He called, and Thor answered. 

He rose, smoothly, without any hint of lingering sleep in his movements. He went to Loki and stood behind him. Thor wrapped Loki in his arms, his love put on display. Loki stood rigid, every muscle tense as if he would fall without all his strength keeping him upright. Thor held Loki tighter, and raised his eyes to Mother’s. 

They were wide and shocked, and her hand had flown to her bloodless lips. “Thor…?” 

His speech came out as little more than a growl. “I will not have you speak such words. Curse his name and you curse mine with it. If you have nothing more to offer than hatred then begone. We have had our fill of that.” 

Loki’s hands clasped over Thor’s own, holding them tighter to his chest. Thor lowered his head and mouthed at Loki’s neck so that Mother could not doubt his free will. Loki’s pulse was racing, shaky under his touch. Thor stroked his tongue over Loki’s skin to try and ease him. _’Tis well. I am here._

“Thor… your _brother_ … how could you?” 

His lips parted with Loki’s flesh and he looked up again. Tears swam in her eyes. Mother had not wept for Loki. She had meant her poison. But she had thought she would get Thor back from this, would nurse him out of Loki’s grip and present Loki’s head to him when he could appreciate it. His grip on Loki strengthened. It had to be painful, but Loki clutched him harder in turn. 

All her prophecies, her powers, the all-seeing eye of motherhood, and she knew nothing of either of them. 

“Because I love him.” That simple, that strong. “Can you understand that? Is there one that you would do anything to call your own? Is there one you could not live without?” 

She shook her head, hair bright in the torchlight. “Not like _this_.” 

“Then I pity you.” 

Her eyes were sad, and then like stones. She turned and walked away, just like that, disappearing out of sight down the corridor. It seemed she had given up on Thor at last. Her footsteps faded slowly, but fade they did, and a heavy door boomed shut. She was gone. 

Loki quivered in Thor’s arms and his knees folded. He dropped an inch before Thor caught him up and brought him to the ground. “Shh.” Thor settled Loki in his lap, kissed his temple, and tucked his head beneath Thor’s chin. “What’s wrong, my love?” 

“Is she right?” Loki’s voice was barely a whisper. “To curse us? It is madness, what we do?” 

“Of course. All love is madness.” 

A soft laugh, little more than a breath. Loki’s frame stopped trembling and he eased into Thor, curving around him. “I didn’t think that she… I knew Odin never loved me, but…” 

“Forget them,” Thor ordered. “ _I_ love you.” _Please, please, tell me that is enough._  

“I know.” Loki’s hand found one of Thor’s and their fingers laced together. Practiced, and perfect, a movement they had shared for years. “I planned to die, to leave Asgard, to _never_ leave her cells. I didn’t plan on losing her.” 

Neither had Thor. But they had pushed her too far. “I am sorry.” 

Loki said nothing, but Thor felt a tear drop to his bare chest. 

There was nothing Thor could do to make this better. He just held Loki close, and hoped his lack of answer meant the apology hadn’t been necessary, not that it wasn’t accepted. 

~ 

Loki did not hiss in pain as he removed his shirt, but it seemed a near thing. He dropped it beside him, and bent his head to study his wounds. 

The bruises were dark and mottled, swollen to the point of casting shadows on Loki’s skin. The deep cuts had scabbed over messily, and thin new skin was starting to bridge the gaps. The few whipweals were darker than before. Everywhere Thor looked, Loki was hurt. 

And all of it was Thor’s fault. 

“All I have ever done is cause you pain.” 

Loki’s head snapped up. “ _What?_ ”

How could he not understand this? Loki of all people knew how Thor had made him suffer. “All our lives, Loki. I ignored you and bullied you as a child, and towered over you as a man. You were right when you said you were never without my shadow. I drove you to fall, and then I refused to let you go and dragged you back to further torment. Look.” Thor waved at Loki’s bare torso. The jagged white scars that he never spoke of were stark against today’s darker wounds. “And look. I finally think to love you, and you are beaten and flogged for it. How it is that you have not killed me in self-defense?” 

Loki hissed. His eyes snapped. “ _You-_ ” He reached out and fisted his hands in Thor’s hair. “Are an _idiot._ ” 

“And you are bleeding and haunted.” 

Loki’s lips thinned. He breathed deeply, trying to control himself. Slowly, he loosened his grip. “You said it would be a bitter world if you did not have my love.” 

“Yes, and I am-” _Selfish. Greedy._  

Loki’s hand over his mouth cut off the words. “I would have _no_ world without your love, Thor. There is nothing without you. Odin would never have saved me if it placed me as his _first_ son. If you had not been my friend I would not have had any. You begged me _not_ to fall. I know - I _know_ , Thor - you did not push me. That was Odin. And when I was lost you brought me home. You forgave me everything and sought only to heal me. There is nothing - _I_ am nothing without you. There _is no_ Loki if there is no Thor. And I am content with that. I embrace that. But _only_ if you are content that there is no Thor without Loki. Only if I know that I am your world as you are mine. And if you tell me instead that you regret this, that I am your _victim…_ Then I will beg Odin for my death and let you free of me.” 

Thor ripped Loki’s hand aside. “No! Don’t-” 

“Then tell me you are _not sorry._ ” 

“I…” He _had_ hurt Loki. But that was not all he had done. Loki was right to speak of other things. Loki had hurt Thor, too, but that had led them here. “I am not sorry. I would not change anything for fear I would not have you by the end. I would not live without you.” 

“Good.” Loki pulled his head down and kissed his brow. “Don’t forget it. We’re brothers. We’re supposed to hurt each other.” 

“Brother-lovers.” 

Loki shrugged. “So we hurt each other and then we fuck.” 

Thor laughed, and pushed him away gently. “Put your shirt back on.” 

~ 

Footsteps echoed down the corridor. Heavy and rhythmic, and the _clink_ of metal on metal. Armor? A guard, then. 

That could mean nothing good. Father would not have released them so quickly. So what was this? 

Thor raised his head. The man stopped opposite their cell, and looked down on them through the bars. They must have made a pitiful sight. Loki was bruised and bleeding, and Thor was naked. Still, Thor stood up to his full height and strode over to the bars. He hid the stiffness from the cold, for all his joints felt like they had knives through them. 

“What?” 

The guard jerked his chin up as if to recover the superiority he had lost now that Thor towered over him. “By the will of Odin Allfather, you are both to be executed at dawn for your crimes of incest and treason.” 

The words quivered in Thor’s gut like a knife. _Execution_. It had always been a possibility, but now… For it to be certain… 

No! What was he thinking? He was the mighty Thor, and he submitted to no man. No guards could hold him down! No weapon could strike his head from his shoulders! He would fight through them all, snatch Loki and leave Asgard smoldering. 

The guard turned and marched away. Through the bars, Thor watched him go. Had that one chosen the duty of coming down here, of announcing death to his former princes? Or did they hold some respect still; had the man fallen unlucky among his fellows? 

No matter. The guards would not defy the Allfather, and Thor would fight them whether they held the slightest loyalty to him or not. 

“Thor.” 

Thor blinked, and turned, wary at Loki’s tone. Dire, and serious, and cold, as he had not been since Father had caught them. “Yes?” 

Loki sat facing away, silhouetted against the back wall of their cell. One bar cast a single shaking column of shadow along his spine. “I am not strong enough to stop him.” 

Hah! Was that all that had Loki so concerned? “ _I_ am, my love. My brother-lover. Especially with you beside me.” 

Loki’s head turned, the torchlight casting his face into strange patches of color and shadow. “Are you? Are you really? You against the whole of Asgard? They will bind me again, you know that - I would not be surprised if they cut my hands _off_ , just to be certain - can you really do this thing _alone?_ ” 

He would, he had to - and he would not be alone, even if Loki could not help. “My friends-” 

“Only commit treason against me, not your father.” 

It chilled Thor’s heart. Loki had spoken without any of the old anger, nor the resentment or the betrayal. He was perfectly calm about something that had burned in him so fiercely. He had made peace with their end already. 

But Thor had not. _Never_ had Thor met an enemy he could not fight, and his father would not be the first. 

“Alone, then!” Thor said. “I can do _anything_ for you, I will!” 

“Will you? Can you? Can you be sure?” Loki stood and came over to him, and took Thor’s face in his hands. “We both know what Odin will do. He will strike you down at once, before you even have Mjolnir in hand, if he has left it in your command at all. I will not be able to protect you. And then he will kill me, if he does not torture me first, for leading you to this. I would prefer not to die in pain.” 

Thor shuddered. But truth it was. Loki, ever quick and clever, would have thought of everything. If he believed there was no way out, there wasn’t one. Thor had known it himself, back in Father’s council room. He had known he could not take the risk of battle. But to know it like this, to know there was nothing he could do to save them… 

It was almost peaceful. No duties, no struggle. He need not prepare himself for war, need not plan and strategize. There was nothing left but to love Loki for all the minutes they had remaining. 

He nodded. “Then I will not fight. I will kneel beside you and let him take both our heads.” 

Loki’s fingers ran through Thor’s hair. Thor felt ashamed at its condition, limp and sweaty, but Loki caressed it like silk. “I did not expect this of him. I agreed with you, that our deaths would gain him nothing. I thought he would leave us down here. Abandon us. Send none this way and let me keep us fed with my magics instead. Have all Asgard forget about us entirely.” 

All Asgard forget about them… As if they had never been discovered at all. 

Thor’s head shot up. “Loki…!” 

“Oh, no,” Loki said, edged with wariness, his hands dropping away. “You’ve thought of something and you think it’s clever.” 

“It is clever!” Thor cried, needled. He was not incapable of cleverness, for all Loki was far superior. There was no call to mock him- 

Loki didn’t hide his smirk quite in time, and Thor felt himself soothed. Loki sought to distract him, not insult him in truth. To sting Thor with adolescent insecurity and goad him into protecting himself so fiercely he forgot _why_ he had been challenged. 

Forgetting was a tool Thor would have Loki use upon others. “Could you _make_ them forget?” 

Loki’s eyes went wide and his indrawn breath shook. “Thor…” 

“You just said you could use magic, is that true?” 

Loki blinked as if surprised. “The wards are against escape, not all workings. Even Odin isn’t strong enough for that.” 

“Then could you make them forget? _Could_ you? Could you wipe this from their minds, make them all forget? Father, Mother, all of them? The whole of Asgard? Could we walk from this cell and be thought nothing more than brothers?” Yes, they could… call out to the guards and laugh at their own imprisonment. It would be thought a prank gone wrong, and they would be released back into an Asgard that knew nothing of incest nor treason. 

They would protect their secret better this time. If they slipped once more, Loki could work his magic again. 

They did not need to give up, not yet. There was always a way out. 

Loki’s eyes were glittering, but with damp and not triumph. Thor sank back a little. This would not be easy, then. “You don’t know what you’re asking me.” 

“I am asking _anything_ that will save you. Anything. Anything you can do.” 

Loki blinked, and the first tear fell from his eyes. “You don’t know…” 

Thor seized Loki’s hands, and held them tight to stop them trembling. “I don’t _care_. _Anything_ , Loki, anything that means I will not watch you die.” 

“Ask Odin to execute you first?” 

Thor scoffed. “And leave you to watch me? I’ll ask to go second. But come, Loki, neither of us needs to die. You can do something, I know it. You always can.” 

Why had Thor not thought of this before? 

And… why had Loki not already acted? 

There was surely a terrible price for magic of this magnitude, enough for Loki to have shied from it. Pain, or blood; something. But Thor would pay for him, or beg him to make that payment, whatever it was, if Loki could only draw death away from their heads. If only he could keep his brother-lover. “Loki, please. Make everyone forget our love. Whatever it costs, it cannot be worse than losing each other!” 

He looked into Loki’s eyes. They wavered, flickering, and not just from the torchlight. But he nodded. 

He pulled his hands back from Thor’s. His fingers moved, gently, a slow dance through the air. Glowing gold lights like fireflies swam in his veins, shining through his skin. 

Thor looked back up. Loki’s tears flowed freely now. Thor loathed to be causing him suffering again, but Loki had said his love was worth it. Loki had demanded that Thor love him with everything he had, and not hesitate. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t make it easier. “Is there anything I can do? To aid you?” 

Loki blinked again, lashes dark against his pale cheeks. He smiled, quiet and private and beautiful. “Give us a kiss.” 

Thor leaned forward a little and met Loki halfway. His lips were soft and tender, and somehow sad. Almost like a farewell, but why… 

“Don’t hate me for this.” 

Hate him? How could he? How could Thor ever hate his… 

His… 

His brother?


	3. Chapter 3

Sunlight was turning his eyelids red. Thor rolled, and pushed his face into the pillow. He had to pull back again when his lungs grew tight with lack of breath. The light returned. No, there was no point in trying to sleep more.

He blinked his eyes open and stretched. He felt well, if still a touch tired. No damage from yesterday’s foolish sojourn in the dungeons. 

Thor frowned as he lowered his arms. No damage, but it had been one of Loki’s more unpleasant plots. Usually others bore the brunt, and nothing so nasty as being stuck in a cell for hours on end, thirsty and bored. At least Loki’s hands had slipped and he had been trapped there with Thor.

With, thanks to Loki’s tricks, only one set of clothes between the two of them.

Thor smiled. Perhaps Loki would be less tricky in future. Keep his jests somewhere more pleasant, maybe. Or, next time he thought to trap someone in the dungeons, he would bring his own key. 

Thor stretched again, and sat up and swung his legs from the bed. _I should find Loki. Let him know there are no hard feelings._

There were none, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want an apology. He would go and make sure Loki knew what his mischief had cost.

~

Thor was only halfway to Loki’s rooms when Loki himself rounded the corner into the hallway. “Brother!”

Loki looked up, and started a little. His eyes were distant, perhaps tired, and he looked pale. No surprise, after spending yesterday in a cell.

They came together, and moved off to one side. Thor tipped his head. This close, Loki looked even worse. There were dark smudges beneath both of his eyes, and his lips were almost as pale as his skin. There was a rough flutter in his breathing, and he was leaning against the wall as if he needed help to stand. “Are you unwell?”

Loki glanced away and shrugged the shoulder that wasn’t supporting him. “I performed a great magic last night. It took more from me… than I would have liked.”

“A great magic? I noticed no such thing. At least you left Asgard standing!”

Loki simply nodded, face still shadowed. “So I did.”

He was unusually grim. Thor frowned. Had Loki been more touched by yesterday’s events? Frightened, even? He had spent months in a cell upon his return from Midgard. To repeat it for even one day could not have been easy. “Tell me, can I help?”

Loki quirked a smile, barely more than a twitch of his lips. “Give us a kiss?”

“Hah!” Thor laughed, and thumped him on the shoulder. “You are well enough, if you can jest! I will pity you no longer.”

Something flashed across Loki’s eyes, something odd and dark and deep that Thor could not find a name for. It was gone in the next instant, leaving Loki’s face as blank as a slate. Perhaps it had not been there at all. Surely nothing Thor had said could have caused such a look.

“Well enough. If you say so.” 

But Loki clearly did not believe his own words. Something larger was afoot here than tiredness. “Why so sad?”

Loki glanced away, teeth worrying at his lip. “I was careless. I lost something very dear to me.”

“And your great magic did not help you get it back?”

Loki’s expression went even blanker. “No.”

Ah. Well, that was nothing Thor could aid him with. Thor walked on, clapping Loki on the shoulder once more as he passed him. “Good luck in finding it again.”

It was very strange, though. Loki had few treasures, but he guarded them like a dragon with its gold. What could he possibly have let slip through his grasp?

Behind him, Thor heard a sound like a sob. “Loki?”

He turned, but the hall was empty.

_Must have been the wind._

~

_Loki._

Thor frowned up at the ceiling of his bedchamber. He had spent an hour sparring with his friends, and had a late morning tea with Mother, but still Loki was haunting him. 

He had thought it a dozen times already, but he thought it again: _Loki was strange this morning._ Strangely dull, strangely tired, strangely blank. Loki’s face and manner were always expressive, telling a dozen stories at once. Most of them were lies, of course. But Thor and his brother had grown closer since Midgard. That realm had stripped Loki of his anger and Thor of his pride. They had started to spend time together, just the two of them, and listen to each other. Thor had been able to read Loki’s moods, to see clearly what he sheltered under falsehoods. He had also thought that, perhaps, Loki did not try so hard to hide from him as he did from others.

And then this. Thor had never seen Loki like this. That odd look in his eyes… What had that been?

_Give us a kiss._

That old joke. But this time Loki had not said it right. It had sounded less like the joke, and more like Loki had… 

_Give us a kiss?_

Spoken as though he were actually asking. As though he had wanted Thor to kiss him.

But that was ridiculous! What kind of idea was that? Why would Loki want Thor to kiss him?

Still, that darkness in his eyes had come then, after Thor had refused. Had he been disappointed? Had he actually thought Thor would kiss him? Hoped, perhaps?

Thor groaned, and scrubbed his hands through his hair. If only he could roll himself up in the furs he lay on and sleep, and Loki’s strangeness would be gone when he awoke. But he was no child to believe that everything would be better in the morning. And ever did he worry about Loki. His brother was being odder than usual. Something could be wrong.

So. Loki was sad and quiet, and wanted Thor to kiss him.

_Hah! He sounds like a boy pining over a maiden._

He was sad. He was quiet. He was asking for kisses and sorrowful at rejection. He did, didn’t he?

But that was _impossible._ Loki pining over Thor! The thought! They were _brothers._ How could Loki secretly love him?

Well. Loki did love him. Of course he did. Just as Thor loved Loki. His _brother._ Of course they loved each other. But that was not the same as… as kisses, as hands sliding beneath garments and mouths on exposed skin…

Loki’s skin would be pale, and silken. Thor would map the scars of battle and his imprisonment. Loki would be slippery and twisting in Thor’s arms, and make Thor chase and fight him into submission. Then he would lie there laughing below Thor with a jest on his lips, if Thor had not kissed him into silence…

Thor slapped his hands to his face. What was he _thinking?_ Lusting after his own brother…

A foolish slip of his thoughts, that was all. Jumping from loving Loki to… loving Loki… 

But they were not at all the same thing! Loki was his brother, and such things were not for brothers to contemplate. Thor was merely confused because he had _chosen_ Loki for his brother as any man would choose a lover. Thor had seen Loki’s courage and cleverness and mischief side-by-side with darkness and pain and wickedness, and taken it all for his own.

For his brother.

_Lover._

No!

But… But Thor would love his future wife for the same things. He would love somebody strong and brave. Somebody who had already endured trials and tests, real true ones of blood and death, and knew the bitter costs of triumph. Somebody who would stand tall beside Thor against any foe. 

And that, all that, was Loki.

So where was the difference between loving Loki and loving Loki?

To hold his brother beneath him, to fill that long white body… Or would Thor take Loki inside himself?

Thor blinked. His breaths were coming short and quick, and his hand was on his cock.

He snatched it away, skin burning, and ached with shame and need. It was wrong. It was _criminal_ to want such a thing, and yet…

The spark in Loki’s eyes whenever a new prank went perfectly.

The way he fought, all swiftness and elegance and sudden brutality. 

He chewed his hair whenever he was truly absorbed in something.

Sighs of _oh, Thor,_ whenever Thor was particularly dense.

The broken things he confided to Thor, how he stood a little taller with every one he shared.

If he loved Loki, then what was it to bed Loki but to express their love? Why could they not unite their bodies as well as their hearts?

Where was the line between a clasp on the shoulder and a meeting of lips? Thor enjoyed Loki’s company more than any other’s. He relished Loki’s rare touches as proof of his affection. 

They were not brothers by blood; they named themselves that, by their choice. Why could they not choose to change that name?

_I am surely run mad._

He wanted to fuck his brother. 

And, by the hot throbbing between his legs, wanted it this moment.

_Loki has ever complained that I always get what I want._

~

Thor stopped outside Loki’s door, and raised a hand to knock.

“- _fool,_ why would you think-”

Ah. Loki was occupied. Thor lowered his hand again. And then he leaned in to listen better.

He could not enter until Loki was finished with his guest, after all. Thor had to do something in the meantime.

And Loki had too many secrets as it was.

“He’s _gone,_ you threw him away just like he asked!”

Pacing footsteps, bare feet, rapid and angry.

“But…”

The footsteps slowed.

“But maybe…”

Thor frowned. Loki was the only one speaking, and the tread was also his. Was he in fact alone?

“You took his remembrance, not his love itself- no! You’ve lost him, you cannot have him back! Be satisfied you still live!”

Too strange. Thor knocked loudly, and pushed the door open. “Loki?”

Loki whirled to face him, hands dropping from his untidy hair. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes were wild.

This was surely very like how Loki would look after Thor had bedded him, hot and breathless and debauched…

“Thor, _what?_ ”

Thor blinked. _I want to fuck you._ That was not the way to announce this. For all his terrible deliberations with himself, he had thought of not one way to explain his lusts to Loki. He had to say something else, anything but that. “Who have you lost?”

Loki shook his head. At his sides, his hands clenched into white-knuckled fists. “Nothing. It matters not. What did you want?”

He wanted Loki’s lips, wanted to feel his skin, wanted to gaze into those green eyes and own them completely.

But it was Loki who had asked for something first. Thor smiled. “Give us a kiss?”

The red drained from Loki’s face. “What?”

Thor stepped closer, boots quiet on the rugs. “That’s what you said to me in the hallway this morning.”

An irritated twitch - a lie. “I know. I was there.”

Thor came closer still. From here, Loki’s eyes didn’t look flustered anymore. They were scared. Utterly scared. “I came to… to offer one. You seemed so disappointed when I did not. Were you sincere?” Loki’s face filled his vision now. His breath was warm over Thor’s face. Those lips were parted. The sharp cheekbones stood out from his too-pale skin. Thor could have taken Loki’s hands in his. “Do you want me to kiss you?”

“Thor, if this is a joke, I’ll…”

He sounded wary, and sad, and falsely angry. “You’ll wish it hadn’t been.”

“ _Thor…_ ”

“Tell me. Shall I kiss you?”

Loki’s head bowed, black hair falling forward over his face.

Then he snapped up and backed away. “You tell _me._ You aren’t here for one kiss. Say what you want!”

“ _Everything._ ”

Loki said nothing. His expression was arch and guarded and distant. Far from welcoming. Thor felt chilled. He had so believed that Loki had wanted this too, but what if he had been wrong? What if he had imagined everything? But it was too late to go back now. He had to hope for the best. That Thor had been right, or if he had not, that Loki would still tolerate his presence. 

“I love you, my brother, and I want to love you in every way I can. To stand by your side in battle, to talk with you until dawn, to hold you in my arms and take you to bed until neither of us can remember anything but each other.”

A half-breath, half-sob from Loki, and a hand flung over his mouth to smother it.

“I want your love. All of it. And I want to offer you mine in return.”

“Why?”

“Why?” Of all the questions, he had not expected this one.

He had not thought about telling Loki at all. He had not _expected_ anything.

_See! This is why you need him!_

Loki’s hand lowered again. His eyes were dark, focused on Thor. He slowly prowled across the gap between them. “Yes, why. Tell me why I should risk this with you. Tell me why I should risk imprisonment, banishment, _execution._ ”

“Exe-”

“You know Odin better than I. Do you think he would be kind? Would be _happy_ for us? Or would he see nothing but his own name stained with incest and seek to wipe it out at any cost? This is a _crime,_ Thor, and for me it touches on treason.”

“ _Treason?_ ” Treason and execution; how were these things possible? Thor sought love, not death. How was it that he could be so barred? 

He knew this was wrong. He had known it in those long minutes spent thinking this over. But he _loved_ Loki, wanted him in every way. How could their love face such awful consequences as this? How could they be killed simply for being with each other? 

He _already_ loved his brother. What was so awful about showing it?

“Yes, Thor, treason. I am a patricide, regicide, I have made attack on two entire worlds and been convicted of attempting to kill you-”

 _Convicted._ Loki admitted to everything but that. There was his proof that Loki loved him, even if as a brother alone. Had Loki held no affection for him Thor would now be dead.

“-I am a mad, treacherous liar, and this creature would think to share the bed of Asgard’s heir? Yes, I think I will be called _traitor_ \- and if I escape that, if I am not locked back in Odin’s dungeons or cast from Asgard entirely, I will at the very least be even more despised and loathed than I am now. Come, Thor. Tell me why I should lay down my life and take your heart instead.”

“Because I love you.” 

Thor looked into Loki’s eyes, seeking… He did not know. Love, returned? Or, more likely, scorn and derision such as Loki feared from Asgard? And he was quite right to. But Thor would not let fear keep him from this.

If Loki did not _want_ him, that was another matter. But if fear kept Loki back, if Loki did want him but dared not take him, Thor would fight for him. And win.

“I love you because you are clever, far cleverer than me. Because you are strong, coming through what you have and surviving. Because you look at me and see _me._ See nothing more and nothing less than Thor. You, an equal prince, are not envious or cowed by my rank, and I believe you meant it when you forswore the throne for yourself. You, an equal warrior, do not shy from me in battle. You challenge me and call me a fool when I am being a fool - and, I believe, a good many times when I am not-”

That brought a half-laugh from Loki, a low _hm!_ kept behind his lips, but it did not reach his eyes. No, those still seared into Thor like green coals. Loki hunted out Thor’s heart and held it up to his ear to hear all its longings.

Thor opened his chest further. “And I had rather have that than the eternal adoration, undeserved, that I would get from any other. You make me a better man, Loki Odinson. You force me to think, if only to impress you. For all this and more than I have wit to say, I love you. And I hope you feel the same for me. If you do not, say so now and I will never speak of this again, never treat you as anything but my brother. This is what I offer you. Is this _why_ you should accept my love? Hah. I think not. If you do this thing it will be for the same reason you do everything.”

Loki was shaking. “And what’s that?”

“Because you want to.”

Loki’s eyes went harsh and dangerous, and Thor hesitated. Too far? _Insulting?_ It was perverse, what Thor desired, to _fuck_ his own _brother,_ why would Loki ever-

“Oh, you _impossible_ thing,” Loki gasped, and reached out for Thor. Fingers tangled in his hair and jerked him forward, and Loki’s lips fell on his.

They were _perfect,_ needy and desperate with a hint of the teeth behind them. Thor dared to thrust his tongue forward, seeking out Loki’s own. It tangled with his, hot and heady, and Loki tasted…

_Like Loki._

The hands in his hair pulled his head back sharply, breaking their lips apart. Thor blinked his eyes open, and stared into Loki’s.

They were almost crazed, snapping between his own. _Is this true, is this real?_ Loki’s lips thinned, and his expression turned stony. “I stole-” He kissed Thor again, fiercer. He pushed his tongue into Thor’s mouth, bit sharply at his lip and pulled away once more. 

“All your love-”

Thor tugged Loki against him. Loki’s round buttocks filled Thor’s hands, smooth and firm beneath the leather Loki wore. Thor shoved at the waist of his trousers so he could touch the bare flesh.

“And you come-”

Loki’s hand was down Thor’s trousers now, groping straight for his cock. Long fingers wrapped tightly around him, rough and hard and hot, dragging his blood down.

“Straight back-”

Finally Thor touched Loki’s skin, warm and silken and curved. Thor gripped him tightly. Loki’s throbbing pulse answered his own.

“For _more._ ”

Thor kissed him again. He pushed their bodies more firmly against each other’s, trapping Loki’s hand between them. Loki’s cock pressed into his hip. Loki’s lips moved, slipping out and away from Thor’s. Thor chased after them and caught them again. He opened his mouth wider to trap Loki’s lips between his own, and bit at one in retaliation. 

Loki gasped. He let his head fall back and licked his lips. His tongue moved slowly, curving around them. Thor shuddered as Loki’s thumb drew the same shape around the head of Thor’s cock. Teasing and he knew it.

Thor pulled one hand from Loki’s trousers and ran it along Loki’s neck instead. He followed the tendons up and over his jaw. Loki flicked his tongue out to catch a finger. Thor traced the outline of his lips, the border where the red met white.

Only Loki would kiss and talk at the same time.

Thor smiled again. “You stole nothing from me. I have always been your brother.”

Loki, perfectly composed, arched an eyebrow. “Brother-lover.”

“I like it. Brother-lover.” It rolled off his tongue, deceptively soft sounds tumbling after each other. Complex, and layered, and impossible but for the fact of its existence. Yes, that was Loki. “Well, _brother-lover,_ what will you have?”

Loki pulled his hand away from Thor’s cock. One of Loki’s long fingers pressed against Thor’s lips. “Words first.”

“Must we?”

“Yes. We must.” Loki pushed Thor’s hand from his face and dragged the other out of his trousers. He nudged Thor back to a low couch. Loki perched on the table set opposite. He leaned forward, hands clasped, elbows resting on his thighs. From where Thor sat, it almost looked as though Loki was touching his cock.

Ever did Loki tease him. But Thor had learned how to fight back.

Thor leaned back into the couch. He let his hand rest just at the top of his thigh, fingers twitching as if they could slide sideways at any moment-

Loki stretched his leg out and poked him with a toe. “Stop that.”

Thor rolled his eyes, but pillowed his head solidly on both arms. “Satisfied?”

Loki left his foot resting on the edge of the couch. Expecting to poke Thor again, perhaps. Thor kept his hands where they were, and did not stroke the graceful, high arch or cup the round heel.

“Thor, this is serious.”

“I know.”

“You _don’t._ I tell you we must have words and you try to pleasure yourself instead.”

Thor scowled. “I thought it would please _you._ ”

Loki shook his head. “You need to listen to me very carefully, Thor. This could cost us both our lives.”

“Only if they know.”

“And you think you can keep secrets? You think you can hide this from every one of them? Can you look Mother in the eye and not confess that you fucked me?”

“ _Yes._ ”

He would have to. He wanted Loki, and if that meant lies, and deception, then so be it. He had tasted his brother, brother-lover, already, and found him too sweet to live without. Loki was too late if he hoped to put this from Thor’s mind completely.

Loki sighed. “You ask us both to risk everything. We _will_ be found out. I know how you never let anything go once you have it. You’ll still want me a century from now, won’t you? And so we’ll still be hiding, still be in danger, looking over our shoulders every moment. One day they will find us. If we don’t die we will wish we had.”

His eyes were turned away, staring somewhere distant. He was so beautiful. Pale and arch, lovely in his conviction. 

Loki spoke again. “You know you cannot promise you will never make one mistake.”

“I…” Loki was right. Thor couldn’t. But neither could he deny himself this. He _needed_ Loki. True, there was a risk. But Thor risked death every time he went into battle. Loki’s love was no less worthy a goal than victory.

“All it would take is suspicion. Rumor. Gossip. How quickly would the people turn from you if this was being whispered? What king-to-be beds his own brother?”

“I do.”

“Hah.” Loki waved a hand. “I suppose I have to give you that.”

“What are you trying to say?” Thor ground out. “I know you want me. I felt you, I heard you. It is too late to stop now. We _already_ share this secret! I will not slip any less simply because I have not bedded you. Lust is plenty enough to damn us both.”

“It must _stay_ a secret, that is what I am trying to say! I will fuck you a dozen times tonight alone, but no-one can ever know.”

“Then I will hold my tongue!”

“Thor-”

He could not wait any longer. Their plans would be no different whether they had bedded each other or not. “After. Speak of this after. You know I will have you no matter what you say. So say it _after._ ”

Loki hesitated, caution and want battling within him. But his eyes burned bright with need to equal Thor’s. He lowered his extended leg to the floor and stood up slowly. His clothes rippled down his body. “Very well.”

Thor growled.

Then Loki’s garments were under his hands, and Thor ripped them apart. He had made his choice, and he would have his prize. He tore Loki’s shirt from him and fumbled at his belt. Loki’s gasps, short and desperate and wanton, filled his ears and urged him on. Thor shoved Loki’s trousers down his legs. “Off.”

Loki’s eyes gleamed. He pulled one leg free, slowly, and then the other. He took a few steps back and raised his arms over his head. “Like what you see, brother?”

“Lover,” Thor added. Loki was all thin, toned muscle, with evenly pale skin over his whole body. A faint dusting of hair covered his chest. A darker line trailed down from his navel to his groin where it was thicker still. His cock hung half-hard between his thighs, longer and thinner than Thor’s. 

Loki smirked. He turned away, glancing back over his shoulder. “Hm?”

His rear looked just as it had felt, tight and firm and solid. Thor stepped closer, and ran one hand over the curved flesh. His other hand slid forward to rub at one of Loki’s sharp hipbones. There was nothing soft about Loki. He was edges and planes and strength. Thor bent his head and bit down gently on a tendon in Loki’s neck. Loki hissed and bucked in his grasp, into Thor’s mouth and hands. His arms wrapped around the back of Thor’s neck and pulled him in.

“I think I like this very much,” Thor said, running a hand down Loki’s thigh. 

“Well? What do you plan to do with it?”

“Oh, I thought _you_ had the plans.” Loki’s skin was warm against his lips as he spoke. “You said you would fuck me a dozen times tonight.”

“So I-” Thor bit harder, at the meat of Loki’s shoulder. It gave a little and then resisted him. “Ah! So I did.”

“Unfortunately,” Thor said, “the sun is still high in the sky. Early afternoon at best, my brother-lover.” Loki quivered in his grasp. “If we follow your plan, I cannot lie beneath you for several hours.” Thor sighed, mock-heavy. “I’m afraid we’ll just have to wait.”

“I…” Loki raised a long-fingered hand and twisted it in midair. Thor’s garments dissolved into mist. His naked brother-lover’s body pressed against his own. “ _Lied._ ”

Loki spun. Thor’s hands fell aside. Loki grabbed his biceps and dragged him over to the bed. Thor grinned, and let Loki push him down onto his back, limbs splayed out. Loki stood at the edge of the bed. He eyed Thor covetously, gaze sliding down his chest and lingering on his cock before rising up once more. Thor shifted to better display himself. Loki’s sheets were of dark green silk, and Thor, golden-tanned skin already flushed red with desire, had to look even brighter against them. He was proud of his body, and enjoyed the looks it brought him. But none more so than Loki’s, licking his lips slowly and focusing on him with an almost burning intensity. 

Loki stepped up, and placed one knee on the bed beside Thor’s feet. “Tell me, how long have you wanted this?”

“Just today,” Thor said. “When I realized you had truly wanted a kiss, and that I wanted to give it to you.”

“Just today,” Loki murmured. He trailed a finger up Thor’s leg, following the curves of his muscles. The one warm point of his touch stood out against the flat, cool silk underneath Thor’s whole body. “So you can act quickly.”

Loki’s eyes had gone almost dull, more of that strange far-away mood of this morning in the hallway. Thor tried to bring him back. “And I will act if you don’t do something soon.”

Loki’s eyes sparked again. “Will you?”

“Leave off teasing me and _do something._ ”

Thor wanted Loki in him. He wanted to feel every inch of his brother-lover, wanted to be filled and claimed and taken. Wanted to belong to Loki in every way. And then when Loki had exhausted his strength, Thor would put him on his back and fuck him in turn, fill and claim and take _him._

“Careful,” Loki breathed, suddenly wary. He leaned over Thor, and jerked his head at the window. “All Asgard can hear you.”

Thor looked out. Thunder was rumbling, low and constant. Dark, heavy clouds were sweeping across the sky.

“I will say I was angry with you,” Thor said, looking back up at Loki. His hair hung loose around his face like a curtain. “Infuriated that you kept me locked up for much of yesterday.”

“Ah.”

“Why did you?”

Loki shrugged. Despite the fact that he was supporting himself on his arms, hands planted in the sheet on either side of Thor’s head, the movement was still fluid and elegant. “I did not intend it. Be assured I will not let it happen again.”

It was a fierce tone for discussing mischief, but Thor took Loki’s promise anyway. “Good. Now will you get back to it before I have to beg you?”

Loki smiled slyly, and bent down to whisper in Thor’s ear. His hair tumbled over Thor’s face. It was feathery and lightly scented with the cool and earthy oils he bathed with. “I’m feeling kind tonight - today - but I will have you beg, Thor. I will have you desperate and moaning, pleading with me, I will tie you down so you can do nothing for yourself. I will be the only one who can give you what you’ll need, and, my brother-lover…” Loki’s tongue rounded the shell of Thor’s ear, hot and wet and wicked. “You will have to make me want to.”

Thor’s mind was burning. His cock pulsed blindingly. He would test his strength against whatever bonds Loki could conjure. He would lie there pretend-helpless under Loki as he took his pleasure and left Thor aching, unless Thor won a scrap of mercy from his heart…

“But then, before I yield, I think you will tire of my games. You will break free and seize me by the neck, force me to my knees, fuck my liar’s mouth, choke all my teasing from me. It will be only fair after I have used you so thoroughly.”

Loki’s tongue ringed Thor’s ear again, and he shuddered. To have that tongue on his cock instead, Loki’s lips hot and wet around him, swallowing him down… Loki silenced and trembling as he took his punishment, as he _allowed_ it… Thor’s hips arched from the bed, seeking a touch to ease the ache between his legs. He needed something, anything. But Loki was too tall, his legs too far apart where he knelt over Thor. There was nothing…

“But I said I was feeling kind, so you have no cause to be angry with me.”

Loki’s hand wrapped around his cock, tight and searing and perfect. It filled Thor with a rush like his lightning. A slow slide up, and a rough push down. Thor rocked into Loki’s hand for pressure, friction, for anything Loki would give him. 

This was his _brother_ here with him. It was his brother’s hand on his cock. His lips were hot with his brother’s kisses. _’Tis all as it should be._ They were _gods._ The realms bent to their whims, not the other way around. If Thor wanted Loki then he would have him. 

And if Loki wanted Thor, then Thor was Loki’s. 

“Spread your legs.”

Thor shoved them apart. Loki chuckled and settled in the space Thor had made for him. He squeezed Thor’s cock once, and ran his thumb around the tip, round and round and round. Thor’s head was spinning with it. “So biddable. I have a strange suspicion you enjoy taking my orders.”

Thor drew a breath, and another. “For a time. Until I grow tired of them and make you take mine instead. I have a strange suspicion _you_ would enjoy taking _my_ orders.”

“Careful, Thor,” Loki crooned. Thor could hear his delight. “A clever tongue gets one into trouble.”

“You should know. Be wary of your punishment if you do not still it, or else put it to better use!”

A harsh jerk of his cock, a brief flash of pain. “I’ll do with you as I please, Thor, and not-”

Thor snapped his legs around Loki’s hips and threw him sideways. Loki hit the mattress with a rush of breath. Thor rolled up and knelt over him. Now it was his hair hanging down towards Loki’s face, his hands in the sheets on either side of Loki’s head, his knees framing Loki’s hips. Loki’s eyes gleamed gleeful defiance. “You must bind me as you promised, for that,” Thor said. “Else your pleasure is mine to give you, not yours to take.”

Loki laughed, a bright bubbling ripple. “Then get giving.”

Thor straightened up. He glanced at his brother-lover’s cock, standing erect, as if reaching towards him. A bead of fluid ran down from the tip towards his heavy hanging balls.

That would be _inside_ Thor in mere minutes. The thought made his heart thump against his ribs.

Thor looked back into Loki’s eyes. “Some oil would be much appreciated.”

“Would it now?” Loki murmured, but one of his hands lifted and sketched a shape in the air. A small glass vial appeared in his hand, and he presented it to Thor. 

Thor pulled out the cork stopper, and raised the vial to his nose. It smelled of cold winter mornings, when the sky was light but the sun had not yet risen. Loki’s magic, to take sight and feeling and turn it into a scent. _Delicious._ Thor tipped the vial and poured the oil over his fingers. A few drops fell to Loki’s chest. Loki’s fingers swirled through them and spread them over his skin, almost idly. His eyes were fixed on Thor’s hand, slick and shining. Thor tossed the empty vial aside and reached behind himself. Loki’s lips parted as Thor pressed his fingers between his buttocks and ran them down to his hole. 

The oil made his movements smooth and quick, and his first finger slid inside. The slight stretch and the pressure of being filled were familiar, from pleasuring himself. But they meant so much more now that he was preparing himself for Loki. His touch now was just a hint of what he would soon feel from his brother-lover.

How easily that word tripped through his mind! Perhaps he should have been here long ago. Perhaps he had been missing Loki’s desire all this time. Thor knew when he had come to want this; how long had Loki been lusting after him?

No matter. They were here now.

Thor pushed a second finger in, and began to stretch himself wide. A little resistance. Then his muscle warmed and relaxed, going where his fingers bid. A third finger, wider still. It was simple, easy; his body’s desires made it so. He felt loose already. Not pleasured, not yet. He saved that for Loki, and kept his fingers only shallowly inside himself.

Loki grinned with a new jest. “One would think you had been practicing for me.”

“Hah. I know what I want, that is all.”

Loki sat up a little, and reached a hand between Thor’s legs. A fingertip ran along where his fingers met his hole. It sent shivers up Thor’s spine. “Mmm. Then take it.”

Thor jerked his fingers free. His hole fluttered around the emptiness. He positioned himself over Loki, and lowered until he felt the head of Loki’s cock nudging at him. He moved back, caught the tip with the rim of his hole, and sank down. 

Loki rose, and rose, and rose inside him. He filled him ever deeper, taking all there was of Thor. Loki’s eyes were closed. His head was thrown back, neck arched. Loki’s cock felt far larger than it looked. It split him open and pushed everything else aside. Thor rocked down harder, burying more of Loki inside himself.

“ _Aah…_ ”

“Oh, _Thor,_ ” Loki groaned. “Just like that…”

Then Loki’s hips were flush against Thor’s rear. Thor’s thighs were tucked tight to Loki’s sides. Thor’s balls rested on Loki’s stomach.

Loki’s hands settled over Thor’s hipbones. “Mine.”

Thor leaned forward and gripped Loki’s shoulders in return. “ _Mine._ ”

“Oh, yes. Now _move._ ”

Order, or plea? Both? 

Thor moved.

A slow roll forwards shifted Loki’s cock inside him. It felt huge and swollen, and Thor ached with how it pressed against him. He rolled his hips back again. Heat built low in his belly. He clenched down around Loki and felt the outline of his cock burst into clarity, long and thick and curving. 

Loki groaned, eyes slipping shut. “Faster…”

Thor rocked his hips again, faster. Loki’s hands were twisting in the sheets, but he was otherwise motionless. “For the one doing the fucking, you’re not doing much.”

Loki’s eyes snapped open.

He tossed Thor aside somehow. He landed hard on his back beside Loki, gapingly empty. He gasped for breath, and blinked to stop the spinning of his head. 

A yank on his arm turned him onto his stomach. Loki’s hand on his neck dragged him upright to his hands and knees. “You want me to move, then?” 

Loki thrust straight inside him, and Thor shouted as he was filled again. Loki jerked away, pulling out of him almost completely, and shoved himself back inside. His hands gripped fiercely at Thor’s shoulder and hip to pull him onto Loki’s cock. “ _Yesss…_ ”

Loki’s hips slammed against Thor’s rear, and his balls slapped Thor’s. Everywhere Loki touched him was a bright haze, swirling through his body. Loki’s cock was pounding into him with all the force he could muster. Stars were flying behind Thor’s eyes. There would be bruises on them both when they were done. Thor would feel the ache of them for hours as Loki layered new ones above these. Loki’s hands on him were unrelenting, enough to break the bones of a weaker being. Thor was rocking back and forth as Loki all but used him.

Thor squeezed Loki hard and twisted his hips. Loki gasped and pushed himself further into Thor, all but fusing them together. 

Loki shouted. Thor felt his release coat his insides, the hot liquid marking him. He would feel that forever, long after Loki’s seed was gone in truth. Thor would always feel the pattern it left, pooling there within him. It was sinking into his flesh like ink.

Loki’s head dropped to rest between Thor’s shoulderblades. His breath washed warmly over Thor’s skin. Loki’s tongue licked a narrow stripe up his spine. He laughed softly. “One down.”

But they were not done. _Thor_ was not done. “Loki,” he groaned. He barely had air enough to speak. “Loki, please.”

Loki slapped him on the flank and he shouted at the sharp pain. Loki pulled out quickly and left him empty. “Save your strength. I want to be unable to _stir_ once you’re done with me.”

Thor’s head was whirling. His heartbeat thundered in his ears. His cock felt as though it was wrapped in lightning. Thor lowered his head to look between his legs. He was dripping a patch of fluid into Loki’s dark green sheets.

A white trail of Loki’s seed was edging down his inner thigh. 

Thor grinned. He would show Loki what _fucking_ was. He would have his brother-lover scream, and Loki himself would not know if he wanted more or wanted Thor to stop. Loki would not stir - he would not even _breathe_ when Thor was finished. 

He twisted his neck back to look Loki in the eyes. “You may come to regret that wish.”

“Oh, I hope so.”

Thor lowered himself to the bed. He hissed at the exquisite feel of the silk as it caressed his cock. But he would not come. He would save his strength as Loki bid. By the time Loki was taken, he would already be tired from his efforts upon Thor, while Thor would have the power of a thousand storms at his beck and call. Loki would lie there, limp and pliant and pleading, as Thor fucked his hole and his mouth until he could feel nothing else. Then Thor would come across Loki’s chest, and let Loki see Thor’s love writ upon his body. Loki would be dripping with Thor’s seed by the dawn. 

He grinned into the sheets.

Loki lay down, half-draped over Thor’s body. His comfortable weight pressed Thor into the mattress. Thor could feel the slick of sweat from them both. In a moment he would move them to Loki’s bath. Perhaps he would kneel, mouth just above the waterline, to suck Loki’s cock.

Perhaps Loki would push him under the water until he came.

Thor shivered, lust prickling through his whole skin. 

“Well? Is my cock worth committing incest and treason?”

Thor laughed. “A bit too late, if it is not.”

Loki slapped his rear, too lightly to leave any sting. “Answer me.”

“Yes. Every glorious inch of it.”

“Good.” Loki’s hand turned gentle, and his fingers slipped between Thor’s buttocks. They rubbed over his hole, swirling through the spilling oil and seed. Thor moaned. 

“Loki…”

“And is it worth giving it up?”

“What?” Giving him up? Why would Thor ever give this up?

Loki’s hand pulled away, and he sighed heavily. Thor felt chilled as he rolled out from under Loki’s body to look at him properly. His eyes were grave, and his lips thin. It would have looked like that strange mood of earlier, but that it was clearly focused here and now. 

The dark green eyes met’s Thor’s. “I’m leaving Asgard, Thor. Before I am forced to. Or worse.”

“No.” Thor reached out and seized his hands as if Loki would disappear otherwise. “No, you can’t just leave! Please.”

“Thor-”

“Please!”

Loki shook his head. “I must. I truly must.”

“Then- then let me come with you.” Nothing was worth more than having Loki by his side. Thor could not lose Loki, not when he had only just realized exactly how much he loved him. 

Loki blinked, surprised. “Thor, you can’t. Odin will never let you.”

“I don’t _care_ what Father wants!”

“No, Thor, please.” Loki’s fingers pressed firmly against Thor’s lips. “Let me explain.” He sighed again. “I’m going to Jotunheim.”

“ _Jotu-_ ”

“Shh!” His fingers pinched Thor’s lips together. Thor bit his tongue for silence. “I’m going to Jotunheim, and I’m going to have them recognize me as a son of Laufey, and a brother to the current king. I’ll say I’ve been in Asgard too long to be worthy of Jotunheim’s throne - and thus pose no risk to Helblindi and his line. On the other hand, it’s high time I took my place among my true people.”

 _Brother to the current king. My true people._ Thor’s heart sank. Did Loki really mean this? Had Asgard failed him so greatly?

Was Thor not enough of a brother for him?

Or was it simply as he had said? Asgard was no longer safe for him now that he was Thor’s lover. _Have I ruined everything?_

“I’ll bring them the Casket, to sweeten the deal - they’ll be falling over each other to kneel before me _then!_ ”

He sounded gleeful. Triumphant. He lay here naked beside Thor, stained with the sweat and seed of their coupling, and plotted his conquest of yet another world. 

Thor pushed Loki’s hand from his mouth. “I don’t want to hear this.”

Loki’s eyes snapped wide. “Thor-”

Thor rose from the bed and started looking for his clothes. “If leaving me for Jotunheim pleases you, so be it. But I don’t have to hear how happily you abandon me.”

“No, wait!”

Loki’s clothes were in a pile, but Thor’s… Ah, Thor had not removed his clothes as Loki had. Loki had magicked Thor’s garments from him. “Give me my clothes.”

“Thor, _listen!_ ”

“Why?” Thor shouted, spinning back to face Loki.

Loki shot up to him and grabbed his head with both hands. “Because I’m planning our marriage, you fool!”

Marriage? “What?”

Loki rolled his eyes. “Sit down and _listen_ to me.” His hands moved to Thor’s shoulders, and he steered him across the room. Not back towards the bed, fortunately. Thor had no desire to hear this there. Loki pushed him down onto a plush chair by the window. Loki sat opposite. They were still both naked, and Loki sat as casually as he ever did, legs falling wide, hiding nothing of his cock. But Thor could not have taken him at this moment had his life depended on it.

Loki had been leaving, Loki had been abandoning everything Thor wanted to give him - for _Jotunheim._

And now he planned their marriage?

“Asgard wishes an alliance with Jotunheim, does it not?”

“Alliance?” Thor blinked. “I- yes, Father has spoken of it.”

“Asgard no longer desires the reputation of a harsh warlord. It would protect Jotunheim, if it could, heal the wrongs done in the past.”

“Yes…”

Loki smiled. “So why not through marriage? Ah, because fucking a Jotun would likely kill you. But if there was a compatible Jotun to marry you to… well.”

“And you…”

“Yes, Thor. I will be that Jotun. A clear friend to Jotunheim, of the royal family but with no claim to their throne. Able to take a form that will not have me slaughtered on sight in Asgard, or slaughter _you_ the first time we touch. Able to survive there for my lifetime. Already knowledgeable of Asgardian politics and culture. All I need is to achieve that first part, and Jotunheim will throw everything behind my plan. Helblindi is yet too new to the throne to have great confidence, but he has been there long enough to know the weight of his crown. He will gladly accept Asgard’s support on equal terms.”

“And Asgard?”

Loki sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. “Asgard is more difficult. Believe me when I say I know intimately that Odin and Mother both would oppose this union.”

“Why? If will bring about a welcome alliance, why oppose it?

“We are their sons. They raised us as brothers, nothing else. We smack of failure in our incest. See what our parents allowed us to do!” 

Thor flinched at Loki’s angry tone, and reached out for Loki’s hand. “Why so bitter? Have you spoken of this before?”

Loki shook his head, clumsily. “No. Not really. But I know this is what they would say, if we mentioned it.” His eyes fixed themselves on Thor’s. “This is why I must leave Asgard, Thor. They need to forget me.”

“Forget?”

“Yes. When I make a suit for your hand - or you for mine - they need to think of me _only_ as Loki, Prince of Jotunheim. Not Asgard, and certainly not as their son. I must be all but a stranger.”

Thor nodded slowly. Loki’s plot churned in his mind like custard, slow and thick. Yet worth the effort, if he could but understand it. “And so you must leave, to secure your position within Jotunheim and let them… cease to love you?”

“Yes.”

“And I cannot come with you.”

“ _Definitely_ not.” Loki shuddered. “Loki, the mad Jotun traitor, drags Asgard’s heir to _Jotunheim?_ That is easily cause for war. And I would not have that realm destroyed, now that it can be so useful to me.”

Thor bowed his head. They would be parted, then. Loki would leave him. He would call Helblindi _brother_ instead, and eat at his table. 

And Thor would have no brother. Loki wanted their parents to forget he was their son. He would perforce give up the name _Odinson_ and any claim to Thor’s brotherhood.

But that didn’t matter. If Thor had Loki, it didn’t matter what he called him, brother, lover, whatever. _Loki_ was enough. 

Thor steeled himself. “When?”

Loki hesitated. _No…_

“Tomorrow.”

“ _What?_ ”

Loki flinched. “I would go now, if I could bear it. Every moment I stay lessens the chance that this will work.”

“But…”

One day and one night, that was all that Loki would give him. Once was not enough. Thor had barely held him. He had realized he wanted this not even an hour ago. And now it was to be snatched from him. _Cruel fate!_

But he was right. Loki clearly wanted this no more than Thor did, but he was right. The more time they spent in private, the more likely somebody would become suspicious. The more time they spent with each other in public, the more chances they had to go too far and give themselves away. It made sense.

There was no other way. Loki could leave, secure his position as a foreign prince, and one day return as Thor’s recognized and legal husband. Or he could stay, and they could both lurk in shadows until they were caught in incest and treason. There really was no choice.

Thor nodded, and felt tears spilling down his cheeks. “For how long?”

Loki was weeping, too. His hand turned in Thor’s. Loki’s thumb caressed the back of Thor’s hand. “For as long as it takes. Perhaps decades.”

“ _Decades?_ ” Could Thor live for decades without Loki? He had already lost Loki once, for but a year, and that had been agony. How could he suffer that over a mortal lifetime? It would be even worse than Loki’s death. This time, Loki would be alive and well, and Thor would know exactly where he would be. He would have to _choose,_ every day, not to visit him.

No, would he? _Every_ day? “Can I at least come and see you? Some diplomatic mission, negotiating the alliance?”

Loki hesitated, fear and want warring over his face. “We can afford no taint of scandal. This alliance is a public one between our realms, not ourselves. To disappear alone together - and, after renouncing your whole family, we would not seem to have parted on good terms - that would be suspicious, and suspicion is all it would take to bring us down.”

“Then somewhere _else,_ somewhere I would go alone. Midgard, perhaps. We can both go to Midgard.”

Loki’s eyes snapped with anger. “Oh, and parade me before your human friends?”

“I would parade you before the Nine Realms if you would have it. I would cry to every living soul upon Yggdrasil that I am the one who holds the heart of Loki… Laufeyson?”

Loki flinched, but contained it. “I suppose I must be.”

“But you desire secrecy, and so I will remain mute until you tell me I can speak. I will not see the Avengers upon Midgard - I will go there for you. Somewhere private, far from prying eyes. Where neither of our faces will be known.”

“And Heimdall? That is one prying eye you will never escape.”

Thor wasn’t sure whether to smile or frown. Smile, that he had spotted a flaw in one of Loki’s arguments. Or frown, that Loki was making these arguments at all. “You were not thinking of Heimdall earlier. This was well enough then.”

Loki’s lips thinned and he tossed his head. “Heimdall only speaks of what Odin asks him. Today is of no matter. But Odin will be tracking _Laufeyson’s_ actions very carefully, and yours when you leave Asgard.”

“But Heimdall acts for the good of the realm, not necessarily at the word of her king. If we convince him that our marriage would benefit Asgard, he will not impede it. We both know he is more careful than even you in what he says. He would tell truth to Father without giving us away, if he believed it was for the good of Asgard.”

“Mmm.” Loki sneered. “Heimdall is ever _flexible_ in his obedience to the throne.”

Thor winced. Heimdall too had betrayed Loki when he had been king. Loki’s hand in Thor’s gripped tight, nails digging into his skin. “He will bend to your side this time, Loki.”

“Perhaps.”

But Loki’s eyes were as yearning and hopeful as Thor’s had to be. Loki too wanted somewhere safe they could meet. To part for years could not be done lightly.

Loki wanted Asgard to think him a stranger. Thor had no desire to join them.

“So,” Thor said. “You become Loki of Jotunheim, and wed Thor of Asgard in an alliance between our two realms. Eventually. And we see each other upon Midgard, when the time allows.”

“It will not be as often as either of us would like.”

“If it is more than _never,_ I will be content.” He would try to be, at least. He would not speak of wishing to see Loki more often, lest they both weaken and do so, and cause suspicion in their frequent absences. They had one chance here to be together throughout eternity. Thor would not see it spoiled because of loneliness and lust. He would still have his friends for the one, and his own hand and thoughts of Loki for the other. He would endure. They both would.

Loki nodded. “Agreed.”

He stood up, and crossed the small distance to where Thor sat. He sank down to straddle Thor’s thighs. Loki’s bare skin was warm against his. Thor lifted his arms to wrap around Loki’s back and hold him steady.

“Oh, and one more condition.”

Thor’s heart quailed, but Loki was smirking. Not another sacrifice, then. Thor played his part, and rolled his eyes, mock-overwhelmed. He needed a jest, at this moment. “Another? What more must I do to win your hand?”

Loki fluttered his lashes coquettishly. “It’s just something small.”

“What?”

“My official title will not be _Queen._ ”

Thor laughed, and pulled Loki closer. Their chests touched all the way down to their groins. Loki’s balls rested atop Thor’s cock. Thor felt himself flush and stir once more. Loki’s cock answered, growing hard against Thor’s stomach. “Will _Consort_ do?”

“I think _Consort_ will do nicely.” Loki smirked, teeth bright. “I think your Consort will do you nicely.”

“Yes, I think he will.”

When Thor finally had him. But they were gods; everything came to them eventually. The years would be long, but they would pass. Thor would have Loki, and they would be King and Consort of Asgard. None could touch them then. Thor would not lose this. 

But for now, Thor would lift Loki in his arms, and carry him to the bath as he had planned. Loki would stare down challengingly and push Thor to his knees in the water. Thor would suck at Loki’s cock, and leave his own aching, untouched, as Loki bid him. Loki would take him again and again, in every way his quick clever twisted mind could think of. And finally, when the sun vanished and the stars wheeled instead, Thor would pin Loki underneath him and release everything he had held back. 

They would do all this and more upon Midgard, and again when Thor at last crowned Loki his Consort. One day. It would happen.

Thor grinned up at Loki. Loki grinned back, equally joyous. 

“By the way,” Loki said, arching an eyebrow, “you never actually gave me an answer.”

“To what?”

Loki pulled back, and Thor let him go. Loki slid to the floor and knelt before him. “Thor of Asgard, son of Odin, will you do me the honor of accepting my hand in marriage?”

“Yes. Loki of Jotunheim, son of Laufey, I will.”

Loki smiled, the most genuine smile of pleasure and happiness Thor had ever seen. He reached out a hand for Thor to help him rise. Thor took it.

He was betrothed! To Loki! Thor was betrothed to Loki!

Loki stood fully, and pulled Thor up with him. They kissed, hard, and Loki’s tongue thrust between Thor’s lips. Thor knotted a hand in Loki’s hair and forced his own tongue through into Loki’s mouth. Loki bit him sharply and Thor yanked his hair in return.

Thor lifted Loki in his arms, and carried him to the bath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge thanks to my betas, [Haldane](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Haldane/pseuds/Haldane) and [OfApplesAndArrows](http://of-apples-and-arrows.tumblr.com/). :)
> 
> Also thanks to everyone who read, kudosed, and commented. You light up my inbox :)
> 
> For background information, updates, and deleted scenes from my fics, please visit my [Tumblr](http://ao3-arkada.tumblr.com/).


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